Meet the Israeli horse whisperer using equine therapy to help treat trauma

“I was a real ‘Borough Parky’ girl,” says Lisa Timinsky. 

Sitting in the offices of Retorno, the rehab facility that offers detox, recovery, outreach, and prevention services, near Beit Shemesh on a sweltering Wednesday afternoon, Lisa, wearing a baseball cap and hiking boots, does not reflect the classic ultra-Orthodox look of her Brooklyn childhood.

Though she is casually dressed, her elegantly painted nails capture some of the Borough Park essence of her youth. Lisa has just returned from the pidyon ha’ben ceremony of her grandson and has brought food from the celebration to share with the staff, most of whom call her Aliza rather than Lisa.

A resident of nearby Ramat Beit Shemesh, Timinsky is a horseback riding instructor and equine-assisted therapist at the Ofek Center Ranch, located in Retorno. Ofek Center operates all the equine programs at Retorno. Lisa uses her equine skills in treating children and adults, and more recently, IDF soldiers who are suffering from trauma. She and her husband, Yossi, have seven children, six of whom are living in Israel, and 21 grandchildren.

“I was always interested in horses,” says Lisa, recalling her childhood. “I wanted one, but my parents didn’t let me. I always had a passion for horses. My friends used to say they wanted a dog, and I said I wanted a horse,” she chuckles.

Growing up in Borough Park, between 15th and 16th Avenues and 43rd Street, she did not harbor any particularly Zionist aspirations for moving to Israel. She and Yossi married in 1982 and lived in Borough Park before moving to Far Rockaway, and then to Lawrence. What prompted Lisa to move to Israel? “My husband,” she deadpans. “It’s like when somebody begs, you say, ‘Just get off my back already. Let’s go.’”

Yossi, who grew up in Flatbush, also did not grow up with a bent for aliyah. In 1992, his boss sent Lisa and Yossi on a trip to Israel as a gift for his industriousness. Lisa and Yossi had never been to Israel before, and they had a wonderful time, though they were not considering aliyah at that time.

It was 10 years later in 2002, when their second daughter was studying in seminary in Israel, that Lisa and Yossi returned for a second visit. Yossi was hooked and said that they had to come back to visit every year. While on that visit, they bought an apartment in Ramat Beit Shemesh, and soon after, he wanted to move to Israel permanently.

Lisa told Yossi that she would agree to move after their youngest son graduated high school and their youngest daughter started high school. In 2014, the family moved to Ramat Beit Shemesh. Until 2020, they frequently traveled back and forth to the US, and it was only in 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, that they made the move permanent.

Helping people through horses

BY THEN, Lisa wanted to make her mark in Israel. “I wanted to help people,” she relates. Lisa had experienced a trauma in her family and sought professional help through her health fund. Recalling her visit to the therapist, she says, “The woman told me that I needed to refocus. ‘Is there anything in your life that you always wanted to do?’ I said I always wanted to ride horses professionally.” The therapist had worked at Retorno as a social worker and connected Lisa with the organization.

In November 2021, Lisa took a course at the Ofek Center at Retorno to become a riding instructor, and then took a second course in equine-assisted therapy. She completed a third course specializing in therapy for trauma. She began volunteering at Ofek in January of 2023 and currently works with children, adults, and IDF soldiers.

Horses are particularly well suited to help people, she explains, because they mirror human feelings. “If you panic, the horse panics. If you are calm, the horse is calm. Horses have personality, just like humans, and are very social,” she says.

Recently, Lisa began volunteering with soldiers who have returned from Gaza as part of Retorno’s Iron Hug project for soldiers, which provides psychological resilience and recovery. The Iron Hug program trauma-oriented therapies include individual and group sessions, as well as equine-, animal-, and dog-training therapies. Iron Hug also offers a range of alternative treatments such as psychotherapy through art, drawing, sculpture, nature walks, meditation, yoga, martial arts, homeopathy, and Bach flowers. Lisa says that when she started working with the soldiers, some were despondent and depressed, like “the walking dead.” Others were very jumpy. The equine therapy that she has been doing with them has yielded effective results, she says.

One of the most beneficial forms of therapy she has performed with the soldiers and with others is ground therapy, in which participants learn about horses and their behavior. “We are bonding with the horse,” she explains. “We walk the horse from the stable. Instead of walking the horse with the leash, I start walking and the horse walks with me. If I turn, it’s turning. A kid with no self-esteem is standing there bonding with the horse, and he starts walking, and the horse is walking with him.” This type of training, she explains, is called liberty training, which relates to any work done with horses while they are loose, without a rope or reins, so they have the freedom to move around. Lisa says that when the soldiers wash and brush the horse, they begin to feel something that they had stopped feeling.

“When people are suffering from PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], many people don’t feel,” she explains. “When they touch the horse and relax them, they start to feel. It does something to their psyche, and they become alive.” Lisa says that the group of soldiers who began therapy just over a month ago has made significant progress.

LISA HAS a varied schedule at Retorno. On Tuesdays, she does ground therapy with soldiers. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, she works with children. On Fridays, she works with residents of Retorno who are suffering from various addictions. On Sundays, she rides on her own and gives lessons for adults; and on Mondays, Lisa rides with her grandchildren on Moana, the horse she owns.

In her wildest dreams, Lisa never thought that she would be living in Israel and working as a horse instructor. “It’s thanks to COVID-19. I was bored and I went to school. This is where God sent me. When I heard about the program, I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ Her husband and her family were a bit skeptical that she would be able to stay the course when she started. “My husband said to me, ‘Are you out to lunch? You are going to start learning how to ride a horse at your age?’”

Lisa’s son-in-law recently told her that no one in the family thought she would be able to complete the course, which was taught in Hebrew. “I had to take the courses in Hebrew and take psychology and anatomy classes,” she says with pride.

Jerusalemite Tania Hammer, who joined us at Retorno for our conversation, has known Lisa for 20 years, when they lived in Far Rockaway. At the time, Lisa’s daughter and Tania were working in a school for girls at risk. Now, says Tania, the circle is complete, since Lisa is now working with children and adults at risk.

“For her to take her passion and use it to heal people is wonderful,” says Tania. “She put her strength to help people heal from cataclysmic events. Using her passion to make people better is unbelievable. She found something that benefits her and the community as well.”

Before our visit ends, Lisa takes Tania and me to the stables to visit the horses and to meet Moana, her pride and joy. Moana is happy to see Lisa and licks her hand, which shows she’s relaxed. “She’s very, very sensitive, which is actually great for a therapy horse. But you’ve got to figure out where she’s sensitive. They are always scared.” Lisa explains that horses are preyed on by other animals and are frequently in fight, flight, or freeze mode. “They’re always looking for a place to be relaxed,” she says.

That is one of the reasons, she explains, why children with ADHD or autism enjoy working with therapeutic horses. “They have to get relaxed or their horse doesn’t listen or they’re running. They have to get relaxed. So we teach them to be relaxed, and suddenly the horse is listening to them, and they feel great – like somebody’s listening to them.”

While Lisa is not enamored of Israeli bureaucracy and dealing with governmental offices, she is thrilled to be living in Israel. “I feel like I am living with my brothers,” she says. “I am living with my people.” And, one would guess, with her horses as well.■

IDF soldiers interested in learning more about the equine therapy programs offered at Ofek Center at Retorno can contact Lisa via WhatsApp at 058-779-4601 or Shai Ben Aryeh via WhatsApp at 052 750-0912.