 Sally Jane Mixon by Denis Blake/National HBPA The annual National HBPA Conference concluded its educational presentations Wednesday morning first with a session on how retired racehorses are transforming the lives of first responders and military members, as well as school children of backstretch workers. The final presentation showcased products using cutting edge technology to provide 24/7 security for stables and state-of-the-art software to help trainers do their jobs. The details:
Sally Mixon: “We’re in a mental-health crisis and we have tons of penicillin in the shape of 1,200-pound animals”
Sally Jane Mixon is a Canterbury Park backstretch chaplain, exercise rider (which she calls her “Christmas every morning”) and mental-health counselor with a BS in Human Development Studies and an MS in Professional Counseling. She has certifications as an equine specialist and mental-health professional, with more than 20 years working in the field, including the last decade while incorporating off-the-track racehorses.
Mixon has intertwined her counseling skills with old horses, some cantankerous and unable to do little more than walk, to help military and first responders suffering from stress, anxiety, coping struggles and other mental-health challenges including addiction.
“The thing about talk therapy is it doesn’t work for everybody. It didn’t work for me,” she said. “I almost died of anorexia in my college years, a long time ago. I never half-assed anything, being the daughter of a Marine, so I was a really good anorexic…. So much therapy when you’re talking with people, if you don’t trust people, it’s not going to work. For me, the horses saved my life at a really young age. I grew up riding. I was 5 years old, fell off my first horse and I was hooked. Horses have an innate ability to heal.”
Mixon said Abijah’s is Hebrew for “The Lord is My Father” and which also was her first horse’s name. Now it’s also her name for a therapeutic model that includes a mental-health professional at a Master’s level and an equine specialist with a minimum of 4,000 hours per dynamic. Front and center are the horses using their mystical powers to connect with individuals in a downward spiral.
“Abijah’s is the bridge between a racing industry and community wellness, pairing off-track thoroughbreds with professional counselors,” she said. “We meet the mental health needs on the backside communities of the tracks to the front lines where our first responders and military serve…. These incredible animals are so intuitive. They’re going to pick up what’s going on internally and they play it out. This works, and it’s completely mind-blowing. My job is to watch miracles.”
Indeed, Mixon believes the program’s results are so powerful that it will transform not just participants but the image of horse racing.
“We’re going to do it at racetracks or farms around racetracks,” she said. “That’s going to give incredible PR for racetracks. It’s going to become known for saving lives, horses and humans. We’re not going to be talking about breakdowns. We’re going to be talking lifting people up, lifting horses up. We’re meeting the need in a really unique way.”
Mixon told the story of a Marine veteran, now in law enforcement, who faced an internal battle because he didn’t feel bad about what happened overseas, when half his squad was killed in action and more died at home from suicide. His anxiety was sky-high, she said, with his very strong Catholic background causing angst over his lack of feeling.
When the big Marine was sweating profusely during his counseling session, the horse Rocket Wrench began walking alongside him. Even after the lead rope was disengaged, the old gelding kept pace, “puts his nose on this Marine’s shoulder and walks with him,” Mixon said. “Rocket doesn’t do that. Rocket bites. But he has his head rested on this Marine and they’re walking step and step. He goes 200 feet and all of a sudden Rocket just lays down at this Marine’s feet. And the tears come.”
The Abijah’s program expanded a youth component at Canterbury Park when it joined forces with Furlong Learning as a summer program for the school kids of backstretch workers.
That program started after a young girl kept asking Meghan Riley — working as a groom because of her love of horses but who has a BS in Education with certifications in Science and Language Immersion — for help with homework. That became a daily occurrence, and when Riley learned the girl had two siblings, she asked the Minnesota HBPA in 2020 to help launch a tutoring service. The program grew each year to 24, 37 and 54 students last year, with the activities expanding to include an athletic component, outside excursions and an emotional-learning curriculum.
Mixon said there can be commonalities between the backstretch population and first responders and military population.
“They tell themselves they’re not worth it,” Mixon said of struggling individuals. “That’s mental health stuff. When a 1,200-pound animal chooses them and says, ‘No, you are,’ that experience transform them. It’s a win for the backside community, a win for horses, for the surrounding community and for the industry. Abijah’s has been able to get legislative funding, and we’re saying this is happening at the racetrack.
“Canterbury Park is helping people learn how to run their race. We’re trying to open the eyes of the community and public and let them see that racing is so much more. I am 100 percent so convicted that I’m willing to look like a fool (believing) this could help transform the industry. We’re in a mental-health crisis, and we have tons of penicillin in the shape of 1,200-pound animals. And it’s freakin’ awesome.” |
