A rider who has faced serious mental health issues has opened up about the incredible way horses have helped her reclaim her life to help encourage others going through hard times not to give up. Melissa Pinfield-Wells was bullied through school and diagnosed with being on the autistic spectrum aged 13. She started self-harming as a teenager, at the age of 18 was admitted to a psychiatric unit after trying to take her own life, since which time she has spent years in and out of psychiatric wards.
Melissa said her life is now “hugely different” and horses have given her the confidence to do go out and do things. “I didn’t think I would ever be able to find any joy out of life because I just felt so guilty that I felt the way I did and couldn’t see how anything could ever change,” she said. “Working with horses helped give me a purpose and find my place in the world.” Melissa is hoping her story will inspire others who are going through tough times to keep going.
“I was training as a biomedical scientist, doing a degree I loved, but I couldn’t cope with being employed,” she said. “I kind of resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to work and I would be off sick on benefits for the rest of my life.” Having ridden since she was a child, Melissa said the equestrian world was the first place she felt she ‘fitted in and made friends’.
“While I was off sick I spent a lot of time with the horses — I’m pretty good with horses, not so much with people, but I can understand and communicate with them,” she explained. Melissa started offering her services in riding and teaching as a hobby and her business has now grown over the past four years to become an established full-livery yard. She also does freelance teaching and riding alongside competing for her own horses in affiliated dressage and is training in animal physiotherapy.
