Healing Power of Horses

Wendy Beth Baker’s The Healing Power of Horses is devoted to the world’s greatest horsepeople, the Oglala Lakota Indians of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. She begins the book by sharing the philosophy of these great horse-loving people: ?There are those who feel the sun rises and sets on the back of a horse, and no matter what obstacles life sets in their way, they never dismount.” The spirit and fortitude of the Lakota Indians inform Baker’s words as she describes how this once-nomadic tribe came to view the horse as sacred and assigned it great significance in their culture, religion, and lifestyle. The Indians who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation have grown spiritually and as a community through their relationship with their horses, and it is through this connection to the natural world that the power of healing and ultimately, health, flows.With photography by Hope Vinitsky, The Healing Power of Horses tells the individual stories of over a dozen Lakota Indians and how horses have affected each of their lives. Baker was able to interview each of these inspiring individuals for inclusion in this book. The empowering stories told come from Wayne Waters, Marlin ?Moon” Weston, Eugenio White Hawk,