Guadalupe Peña Villarreal - Hippotherapist and Escaramuza Rider

Guadalupe Pena Villarreal at her family's Rancho La Hera in Mexico City.   Photo by Leslie Mazoch

Guadalupe Pena Villarreal discovered the healing powers of horses when she needed it most.

After decades of riding horses on escaramuza teams, she suffered a stroke that paralyzed one side of her body.

But she got back on her beloved horse "La Chirris" and learned to let him walk her to health. She began to study the healing powers of equine assisted therapy and tested it on herself.

Guadalupe Pena Villarreal washes her horse at Rancho La Hera.          Photo by Leslie Mazoch

Pena regained feeling and control of the paralyzed side of her body and is back competing with escaramuza teams and judging in Mexico and the US.

Life is back to normal, but it's not the same. Now, she knows first hand the healing energy that horses embody and offers hippotherapy sessions at her small rancho "La Hera Ranch" in Ixtapalapa, Mexico City.

Her work has been documented by photographer Chico Sanchez, watch here: Healing Horses.

Pena belongs to the generation of escaramuzas who pushed her sport to be officially just that, a sport, within Mexico's national sport of charreria, and one of the first judges for escaramuza competitions. She is featured in an audio-slide show titled Escaramuzas. Mexico by photographer Leslie Mazoch.

Contacts for Guadalupe Pena Villarreal
Website: http://rancholahera.blogspot.mx/
Telephones: +52.55.5445.6461 (Rancho La Hera)
+52.155.5685.1996 (cell)
+52.55.5408.2473
Cell Nextel ID 62*313748*5
E-mail: gua_pevi@hotmail.com