Other Voices

Anita Martin talks to horses.As a certified equine sports massage therapist, she helps horses in pain.

“When horses are in pain,” she says, “they need help. They can’t tell us with words, but they certainly tell us with body language and action,” which can include biting, bucking, and kicking.

Martin has been familiar with horses since before she was born. Both of her parents rode horses. And, Martin’s mother rode horseback when she was pregnant with Martin, which she says made her comfortable in utero with the rhythm of riding.

In her book, “The Horse Less Traveled,” Martin writes that horses were the glue that kept her family together.

She describes her father as a “real hillbilly” who did trick riding at a mountain resort for city folk, which is how her parents met.

“My mother’s obsession for horses and my father’s rebellious James Dean personality. It was a perfect match!”

As a very young child, Martin writes, she would spend hours quietly observing horses. “There was something going on very deep inside me, as if I could hear them, as if I knew their thoughts. This was a connection that was very personal. This was a window that they allowed me to see into their world.”

As she grew older, Martin rode her pony, Candy, everywhere. “Being a quiet little girl my pony gave me courage and confidence,” Martin writes. With Candy, she felt secure, and that’s how people knew her as she traveled her neighborhood on horseback.

“I always felt like even my own feet were foreign to me,” Martin says in this week’s Enterprise podcast. “But being on top of a horse was more natural and comfortable. I was fascinated by them.”