Judy Putnam: Horses help rancher heal

• A fundraiser for the Brain Injury Association of Michigan will be held Friday, Dec. 4 at the University Club in East Lansing.
• The event features live music, dancing, buffet dinner, a cash bar and an auction. Tickets are $65 per person.
• Tickets are available at http://rockinforrehab.tk/ or by calling (810) 229-5880. Proceeds support the 20 Michigan chapters.

SARANAC – At age 29, Michelle Wrubel’s life was splendid.

A lifelong horse lover, she had decided to forgo vet school to manage her horse business, Stone Creek Ranch. The ranch was thriving. She and her husband, Mark, bought her childhood home near Clarksville, and they had a 15-month-old son, Eli.

Then everything changed. Wrubel was bucked from a horse she was training and knocked out the day before her 30 birthday.

It was Aug. 17, 2012.

Since that time, her experience dealing with her head injury has given her a new passion — connecting her affection for horses with helping people suffering traumatic brain injuries. Wrubel is now a member of the Brain Injury Association of Michigan, and she told her story to promote an upcoming fundraiser for the group.

After her fall, she regained consciousness, and her mother took her to the hospital. She was diagnosed with a mild concussion, sent home and told to rest. But she didn’t recover. She began experiencing debilitating migraines and dizziness about two weeks after her injury.

“It started to take over my life. I went from working 10 to 12 hours a day to being barely able to stand,” she said.

Her busy horse training, boarding and equine therapy business came to a halt. She couldn’t care for her son alone. She couldn’t read. Her eyes failed to track words on a page. She went from easygoing to highly anxious and her blood pressure elevated dramatically.

All she could do was hide from the light and try to stay quiet. A doctor suggested she was faking to milk worker’s compensation.

A month after her injury, she was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome. Doctors theorized that she may have had undiagnosed concussions in the past from being thrown from horses and the effects accumulated.

It was five months after the accident before medications got the migraines under control.

In the meantime, she canceled her riding classes, therapy and training appointments and sent boarded horses to other farms. Her husband, trying to take over child rearing in addition to a demanding job, was exhausted.

“I felt useless, and I felt I was in the way. I was feeling like a burden on my family,” she said.

Her mother, a certified life coach, helped her sort through her anxiety and control it. Her horses and the peaceful pasture setting helped tremendously, she said.

“I could sit with them and cry, or I could sit with them and not say a word,” she said.

Wrubel went back to work in March 2013 and began rebuilding her business.

Today, at age 33, she has 27 horses, including 15 boarders. She rides, but always wears a helmet, and doesn't ride problem horses to avoid further injury.

A year ago, she began attending meetings of the Lansing chapter of the Brain Injury Association of Michigan. There she found kinship among others dealing with some of the same issues and practical tips for grappling with the lingering effects of her injury, such as filters for computer screens that combat light sensitivity.

Wrubel works with licensed mental health therapists to provide horse therapy for those dealing with such issues as anger management, histories of domestic abuse or blended families in transition. Horses are extremely sensitive to human emotions and will mirror the patient’s feelings, providing them feedback as they work with the horse, she explains. With such exercises as coaxing the horse to them or walking them through an obstacle course, the patients must be calm for the horses to comply.

She’s gaining her own certification as a life coach. She hopes to continue working with therapists and also provide coaching at the ranch. She will also offer the ranch as a respite for those dealing with head injuries, who could benefit from a few quiet hours watching the horses. And she understands the need to recapture joy after a head injury.

Wrubel just created a nonprofit division of the ranch called Stone Creek Reflections to support the care of unwanted horses as therapy horses as well as help clients with financial need.

“The way I want to support people is helping patients and their families sort out all of the mess and find a way to enjoy life again,” she said.

Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Write to her at 120 E. Lenawee St., Lansing, MI, 48919. Follow her on Twitter @JudyPutnam.