In 2007, Lesley Roy and her husband Gord, who live in Lake Cowichan, were the victims of a car accident on the Coquihalla Highway. The accident left Roy in a deep depression, one which she felt she could not get out of.
She began going to physiotherapy, but she was withdrawing from the world.
“I went into a very deep, dark depression for a long time. I didn’t want to get out of bed, didn’t want to leave the house, didn’t want to deal with people, I just wanted to be basically left alone,” says Roy.
Her physiotherapist was really the first person, besides Gord, who noticed that something was wrong. The physiotherapist sent a letter to Roy’s doctor who then referred her to other doctors. Now, Roy is on medication to help her balance out her moods, but the medication wasn’t enough to help Roy turn herself around.
Roy has always been a horse person, and during this time she began playing on the internet and she found several websites all about miniature horses. One of them, Mare Stare in particular, began Roy on a new journey, one which would bring horses back into her life and see her on the road to recovery.
“It’s basically you are watching other peoples’ animals online,” Roy explains about Mare Stare. “I’d seen miniature horses before, but never had anything to do with them.”
Roy began chatting with other horse lovers online about the miniatures. She also began a correspondence with the Vancouver Island Miniature Horse Club, the secretary of which invited Roy to her home.
“It was really hard for me to go out anywhere and deal with people I don’t know,” says Roy. “I sat down and talked to her and actually joined the club before I had any miniatures.”
Another horse enthusiast let Roy use one of her horses for a fun day put on by the club.
Gord attended one of these fun days and after seeing Roy’s smile he suggested that maybe owning their own miniature horses might be something they wanted to consider.
“And I lucked into finding an ad for somebody that was selling a mare and a foal,” says Roy.
Gord told Roy that he would try and come up with the money to purchase the two horses for her fiftieth birthday.
“And that’s how I actually ended up getting them,” says Roy.
Both horses were not in showing shape, so Roy began the task of bringing them back to health and in the process began bonding with them.
“They were therapy for me,” she says.
She broke in the foal who was only a month old when Roy purchased them, and pretty soon she was participating in miniature horse shows on Vancouver Island.
“I started interacting with more people, and like Gord has even said it’s brought me out of my shell. Now I have something in common with other people.”
She has met other people through the clubs, fun days, and showings, that have also benefitted on an emotional level from owning the horses.
“I can just sit and watch them for hours. Grooming them is therapy for me, and I can talk to them, I can tell them what’s wrong, and they don’t judge. They listen, or they appear to be listening. They give love, like all animals do.”
Roy now owns four miniature horses, almost all of which have won awards. Her smallest, Mira, was shown at five months old and won Grand Champion Junior Mare.
Roy’s long term dream now is to use her horses for therapy for others. This means getting the animals registered as therapy horses, among other things, but Roy would like to help others who have also suffered and are struggling.
The Roy’s are able to keep the cost of keeping the horses to a minimum through help from friends in the community.
The horses are kept at a friends place, a man named Gary who is in a wheelchair and can no longer do much of what needs to be done on his property. So Roy keeps the barn clean helps with repairs “and the whole back area was pretty much mine for the horses.”
She hired a local youth to help her clean up the barn and the field.
“I can’t do most of the physical stuff myself,” she says, referring to her accident related injuries.
Mountain Man Services delivers the sawdust for the horses stalls, and in trade Roy does his bookkeeping.
Gord is happy to see his wife back to her normal self.
“It’s been great. She’s even better than she was before. That was the best thing for me to do. I had the money to get my bike out of the shop, but instead I turned around and I bought two horses for her,” says Gord.
“It’s done a world of good for her. She’s way more outgoing and talkative,” he adds.
“I still have my moments,” says Roy, “where I have downward spirals and stuff, but even my doctor, and I was sent to a psychiatrist too, and they both said the same thing: the horses are the best thing for me.”
Roy would also like to extend the services of her horses in an informal therapeutic manner to the community. She says she is more than willing to bring them to places like the Lake Cowichan Seniors Centre, the schools, or elsewhere.
Roy can be reached by email at les_roy@telus.net.
