Oh where to begin so in no particular order.
Horses are good at picking up on people's emotions but I'm sceptical of a chakra to chakra connection between a horse and a person.
Pulling a card before the 'therapy' session seems to create a preconceived idea of what to expect from the horse. I believe that to be misleading as such a situation involves the subconscious and then projected outwards on a horse.
In the second picture, Casper is standing as far away from the people as he can which is at the end of the session. To me, the horse is saying I'm done and want out now. If he was really a therapy horse, I'd expect him to be standing with the people. Friendly horses tend to hang around with people.
I think the writer's therapy session was more about the card and her thinking about it's meaning before seeing Casper. If this was truly horse medicine, cards should not have been involved.
As for the hugging part, I'd rather hug a horse than a human but by then Casper had wandered off. As for him knocking down a 'stick', he could've just been a bit grumpy that day.
I wouldn't hold my hand underneath a horse's mouth like that. It's a safety issue as a horse could bite fingers.
As for the word stable(s), the building is a stable and what the horses are in are box stalls. Bugs me to pieces when non-horse people write articles and get the terminology mixed up. The 'stick' is used for setting up jumping obstacles. If memory serves, the 'stick' is called a jump standard or post standard. Anyone who googles horse jumping equipment will see it.
If the writer got the words 'stick' and 'stable(s)' from the therapist, than that person isn't a horse person. No responsible horse person would leave a stall door open for a horse to wander out and go who knows where. Rather a dangerous situation for a horse.
Another safety issue is shown clearly in the first picture, let's stand in front of the horse. If something spooked Casper, chances are pretty good he'd charge forward knocking down the two people. That can happen really fast.
I don't see a halter and a lead rope. Wonder how they moved Casper from the stall, to the arena and back again. Did someone chase him? Why not use a halter and a lead rope? That's another red flag.
If I stood taking pictures of horses, I'd get nose prints on the camera. Don't know why the therapy horses feel standoffish to me.
The cost of a therapy session is outrageous. I would never ever pay even $100.00 for 90 minutes, let alone over $300.00. I just don't see the value of paying that much for what the writer experienced which I think is due to her thinking on what the card means.
The therapist's credentials are a certified spiritual energy healer and a trained medical anthropologist. Not one word of any horse experience she has. The article doesn't say how long the 'therapist' has been a practitioner. The credentials I'd like to see would be something like psychology/counselling (doesn't have to have a doctorate degree, but something), experience with horses and the energy experience last. No cards or any other form of reading at all.
The whole article feels off to me and especially the pictures.
__________________
"The Children of God were moulded by the Hand of God which is called Awen..."
The Kolbrin Bible, chapter 5, vs 1
"But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee."
Job 12: 7 and 8 (KJV)