Angel Ianakiev wasn’t looking to add a donkey to her life.
She’s always loved horses; rode them as a kid but didn’t have many opportunities to do so the last 20 years … until the pandemic hit and this young mom decided “I needed a hobby.”
So Ianakiev leased a horse once used at a youth camp and took up riding again. Which would have ended this animal tale right there … except she is also owner of Anchor Counseling in Geneva and St. Charles, and quickly realized the therapeutic benefits of just being around these beautiful and majestic creatures.
“I’d go out a few times a week and just felt so empowered,” she recalled. “I felt good about myself. And I needed to find a way to share that with my clients.”
The result: Stable Minds Equine, an equine-assisted therapy program Ianakiev started through her counseling business; and just recently was featured at the National Alliance on Mental Illness State Conference held at Benedictine University in Lisle.
All went well at the event, she reported. But the star of her presentation was a little donkey named Nacho, who a couple years ago was saved from a “kill pen” and has since not only helped many of her clients in her program but taught Ianakiev herself “an awful lot” about patience, persistence, playfulness and even parenting itself.
Equine assisted therapy, as I learned, has seen rapid growth over the last decade as an approach to mental health therapy, which Ianakiev says is “changing” as counselors look for better ways to connect with their clients. It involves supervised, trained specialists using interactions between people and horses to promote emotional growth, self-awareness and healing. In this case it does not involve riding horses but working alongside them; grooming or leading the animal, observing its behavior and feeding or caring for it.
All these activities involve calm physical activity, emotional awareness and connection with a sensitive animal that, as Ianakiev notes, “mirrors human feelings.” For example, horses will pick up on the anxiety seen in people by fidgeting, stomping their feet or overreacting to small sounds or movements, she explains, adding that “when we see what that anxiety looks like in real time we can work through our own feelings” – with help from the therapist through breathing exercises and positive self talk – in order to calm the horse.
Horses are unique from other animals, Ianakiev says. Not only are they highly sensitive to body language and emotions, “they make us work at building trust and respect.” Plus, successfully guiding a 1,500-pound draft horse on a lead rope through an obstacle course, she insists, “is a pretty powerful thing.”
Ianakiev’s program features a trio of horses, ranging in different sizes. But as mentioned, she had no desire to add a donkey to the stable — until the family moved to an Elburn farmette a couple years ago and her daughter, then five, asked for one after her sister was given a cat.
As she looked into the possibility, Ianakiev was introduced to a woman in Indiana who rescues equines scheduled for slaughter and tries to find homes for them. That’s how Nacho, who had ended up in this kill pen because of a birth defect, got dropped off in the middle of Campton Hills Road; with Ianakiev trying her hardest to lead her new animal “that did not want to be led” across a pasture.
“I had no idea how to deal with a donkey; had no idea training them was so different from a horse,” she admits, referring to how the latter moves away from pressure while donkeys lean into it.
Ianakiev describes Nacho as “a lot to manage.” For one thing, he was young and had “high energy.” Translated: the little donkey liked to chase after her two middle-aged horses, biting and kicking them.
That first year was challenging — to the point the therapist thought she would have to get rid of Nacho. That’s when a farrier suggested she borrow her mini pony for the summer, hoping the donkey would be more compatible with an animal his size.
And it worked. Baby Ruth not only was added to the stable permanently, this pony and Nacho became best friends. The stubborn donkey who had been such a “troublemaker” began to settle down and even became a favorite of clients young and old.
Ianakiev went through some changes, as well. “Nacho taught me how to be a better parent,” the counselor says, noting how she learned to “slow down and work on his level” as the donkey also became a better listener.
Does he always do what he’s told?
“No,” admits Ianakiev. “He’s still a donkey so he’s got lots of personality. And that’s what is good in therapy because we have to learn to compromise and work through things.”
As it turns out, “Nacho came about as a rescue but now he is kind of helping rescue other people,” she says. “So his story really has come full circle.”