How my Farm Saves my Mental Health

While the statistics will tell you about the enhanced senses of a dog that allow it to provide comfort and reassurance by predicting when certain illnesses can cause an issue or how riding a horse can assist in the muscle maintenance of those with muscular disabilities due to their higher body temperature, the forgotten nature of the earliest form of therapy from animals is that of farming.  

Farmers have worked the land and the animals for centuries; depending on them for not only food but guidance, an extra set of eyes and ears and as a companion. Farming is a lonely job with long unsociable hours and without those companions, it becomes a much more dangerous job both physically and mentally. Animals, and I mean every animal, have a deeper understanding of our nature sometimes than we have ourselves.  

I do not come from a farming background; it has lay dormant within the bloodlines of my ancestors until I came along and as I grew so did the relationship with animals and the natural environment and I can say honestly that farming has saved my sanity. 

Life is not easy and now, more than ever, we see the impact of mental health as we become more dominated by social media and the access to view so much of the world at the click or swipe of a digital device. We compare ourselves to others, we run ourselves down. We set unrealistic expectations based on the views of others and we punish ourselves if they are not achieved. 

At times I wonder do we look for answers to questions that we will never know and have we forgotten how to let go and to breathe. Everytime I have this feeling I will find solace in the farm, companionship in an animal and a settling routine in the chores to be completed.

The days are long and wet and very muddy and I swear because I was not built to run 4 miles to catch a loose cow and I did not work hard to tend to my plants only to have the goat inhale them in a matter of seconds nor did I appreciate the piglets biting a hole in the new hose or the dogs knocking me over whilst racing to get to the field gate I also wouldn’t have it any other way for their is a lesson to be learnt from it all and none of it out ways the peace and laughter and heart warming feeling that each and every animal and the nature of farming provides. As we learn about double checking gates and fencing of delicious to goat plants and about not leaving hoses at piglet level we also learn that at the end of everyday, once all are fed, watered and back where they should be, tomorrow is a new day. Not one animal is holding on to the frustration of the farmer. A new day is a new day. It is fresh. The goats are not annoyed about my raving over plants, the cows are happy to be back were they belong (the grass isn’t always greener), the pigs are enjoying a mud bath and the dogs are loyally at my feet as workers and protectors in equal measure and together we move forward, in tandem, as a new day without the frustration of yesterday.

Farming is not just the animals however the days are hard labour, maintenance, repairs, growing, harvesting and anything else that should pop up in between. Moving fencing for escaped piglets in the pouring rain is not fun. I can confirm from first hand experience but there is a sense of achievement and a peace to be found in it. Somehow the problems of the mind have managed to untangle themselves through the physical use of the hands. A hot shower, a cup of tea and like magic the problems have a resolution or don’t seem quite so unmanageable. I have learnt a secret though, it is not magic, it is in the physical work of farming I have managed to get out of my head and my own way, allowing my mental health to find its balance.  

Sometimes there is nothing in the world can fix a problem like digging potatoes.  

Carrie-Anne Mooney
Finance Manager

Written August 2024

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