Tim Hayes, Johnson Equestrian, Teacher and Author, Has Died

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  • Tim Hayes and his horse Austin.

Tim Hayes, an internationally acclaimed equestrian, author and longtime instructor at Vermont State University in Johnson, died on August 17 of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 80.

Hayes harnessed the ability of horses to transform the lives of those who were wrestling with lifelong physical and emotional traumas — including himself. When Hayes’ wife, Stephanie, announced his death this week on Facebook, condolences poured in around the world, many from people who had read Hayes’ books or had met him through his years of equestrian clinics.

As Seven Days explored in a September 23, 2015, cover story, “Stable Support: Tim Hayes Harnesses Equines’ Healing Touch,” Hayes was 47 the first time he ever climbed on a horse. Born and raised in New York City’s Greenwich Village, he grew up in a dysfunctional household, the son of an abusive and alcoholic father who worked as Madison Avenue advertising executive. Hayes would follow in his father’s footsteps, pursuing his own career making television commercials — and becoming an alcoholic himself.

But Hayes’ life changed dramatically for the better in 1992, when he visited a cattle ranch in southern Idaho and was exposed to genuine horsemanship for the first time. Soon after his return to New York, he walked away from a lucrative career in advertising to learn as much as he could about horses, riding and equine therapy — a passion he pursued until last year, when his Parkinson’s made riding no longer possible for him.

Hayes mastered an equine training philosophy known as natural horsemanship, aka “horse whispering,” which uses gentle and humane techniques to build the bond between the animal and its rider. As he told Seven Days in February, “Horses taught me what love is.”

An expert on equine therapy, Hayes published Riding Home: The Power of Horses to Heal in 2015. The book explores how the practice of working with horses has helped hardened criminals, veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and people wrestling with substance-use disorders. (Horsemanship eventually helped Hayes beat his own alcoholism.) Actor and director Robert Redford, who directed and starred in the 1998 movie The Horse Whisperer, wrote the book’s forward.

Last year, Hayes released his second book, Horses, Humans and Love: Powerful Lessons From the Herd. More philosophical and far-ranging than his first book, this one examines the 10 “social skills” that horses exhibit in a herd — acceptance, tolerance, patience, understanding, kindness, honesty, trust, respect, forgiveness and compassion — from which humans can draw powerful lessons for their own lives.

“Taken together, these [traits] constitute what I have come to believe is the universal or true altruistic meaning of what we call love,” Hayes wrote. “I believe it is this love that, when emulated by humans, enables us to become better parents, children, husbands, wives, and partners. It is this love, so eloquently demonstrated among horses, that is the literal archetype for the love that I feel is not only indispensable for every successful human relationship but potentially the future existence of humanity.”

A celebration of Hayes’ life will be held on Saturday, September 6, at his home in Johnson. Please RSVP to Stephanie Hayes at [email protected].






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