Equine therapy can improve the well-being of individuals with autism. The Maui Arts & Cutural Center will host a Nov. 19 screening of a new documentary that explores the healing power of horses. Courtesy photo

A documentary about the miracle, mystery and science of healing with horses, “Rescued Hearts,” will screen Nov. 19 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center with filmmakers Dana Croschere and Krisanna Sexton in attendance.

Their film was inspired by a life-changing moment when a 7-year-old autistic child while interacting with a horse spoke his first words. Croschere and Sexton felt moved to uncover the deeper meaning behind this extraordinary bond.

“This film is really something that was birthed out of witnessing a miracle,” Croschere explained. “I was volunteering, working around adults and children that were diagnosed with autism, and one day I was leading the horse for a 7-year-old boy who had never spoken a single word in his life. Through this therapeutic experience with this horse, he started speaking. It was incredible.”

Long drawn to being around horses, Croschere began volunteering with kids and horses around 15 years ago.

“I realized that people partner with horses to help humans with therapeutic riding, equine-assisted learning, and coaching therapies,” she said. “It changed my life forever. I couldn’t believe how much this work with these animals was transforming lives.”

Among the folks interviewed in the doc, actress Amber Marshall, who starred in the popular TV series “Heartland” about a horse trainer, reported: “There is something so far above what any of us know that forms this connection.”

Equine therapy uses horses to improve the well-being of individuals with autism. In a study, Children’s Hospital Colorado psychologist Robin L. Gabriels found children and teens with autism who rode horses showed improvements in speech, social skills, hyperactivity and irritability compared with similar youth who didn’t ride.

A follow-up study six months later found the children continued to exhibit reductions in irritability and sustained their initial improvements in social communication and word fluency.

Moved by her work with horses, Croschere recalled coming home one day.

“I told my partner, I feel like there’s a lot of people out in the world that need to know how healing this is to be in the presence of these animals,” she said. “At the same time, information started circulating around social media about heart coherence, and what it is about being in the presence of a horse where our hearts actually impact one another. It’s so calming to our nervous systems.”

In the doc, Nahshon Cook, who works with rescue horses, noted: “Sometimes a horse is the only safe space in someone’s life. Horses give people the courage to address unhealed things.”

“Horses give people the courage to address unhealed things,” says rescue horse worker Nahshon Cook. Cook is included in a new documentary that focuses on the healing power of horses. Courtesy photo

Croschere continued: “We ended up filming over the course of two and a half years in five different countries and in 31 different states,” including Hawaii.

On Kauai at a therapeutic riding centre, “we filmed with an amazing human being, Tara Coyote, whose life was forever changed with horses. She had stage four cancer, and she attributes being around horses to saving her life. She is coming to the screening on Maui.”

Coyote leads grief rituals with horses on Kauai. “The Maui fires had just happened, and people from Maui came to Kauai for that experience,” she said. “So it’s beautiful for us to come to a community in Maui where they’ve experienced a lot of trauma and grief, because our film really impacts people in that way. It has a transmission of love and healing and hope.”

“Rescued Hearts” has so far won best documentary at the Tryon International Film Festival and best of festival at the Lady Filmmakers Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Croschere and Sexton first collaborated on the film, “Love Heals,” about self-healing, which was broadcast on PBS. “I went through a medical crisis and ended up with two unsuccessful spine surgeries,” Croschere explained. “We end up creating a film about healing naturally. There’s so many things about our nervous systems and the correlation to our past and the mind-body connection. Our beliefs are so powerful.”

Screening their film around the nation, they have been greatly moved by audience reactions.

“We have people that have never even thought about horses come and see our film, and their hearts are just blasted wide open. The biggest thing for us has been the feedback of people feeling transformed just by watching our film. The feedback never ceases to amaze us. This film connects people; it connects people to animals, to nature, to each other, and, so importantly, to themselves.”

“Rescued Hearts” will screen at 6 p.m. Nov. 19 at the MACC’s McCoy Studio Theater. Tickets are $37 at www.mauiarts.org.