Several organizations across the country are helping veterans rebuild their lives through equine therapy, but the Texas-based Mustang Heritage Foundation offers a unique twist: the horses it uses are wild.
The therapy involves veterans training a mustang that was previously living on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and that has never had contact with humans. Over the course of the 12-week-long program, the veterans train the horse so it can then be adopted.
Program Director Byron Hogan tells the Austin American Statesman, “We started seeing this transformation not only of horses but of trainers. Time and time again we’d hear, ‘This horse changed my life.'”
Program participant and Army veteran Christina Avery says, “Honestly it was my last-ditch effort to find something that was going to work. I’ve been through a lot of counseling, I’ve been through a lot of treatments, I’ve been on a lot of pills. Nothing has compared to this…This has brought me to where I should be.”
KEYE-TV interviewed some participants from the most recent group of veteran tamers. One participant, Laura Parunak, flew Apache helicopters during two tours of Iraq. She found the training experience challenging, but rewarding. “I knew it was going to be hard, and I knew there were going to be days like this.” And yet, she says, “I don’t know that I could ever continue my life without some exposure to horses.”
Larry Howell, who was wounded during his second tour in Iraq, tells KEYE-TV that working with mustangs “teaches you patience.”
Both Howell and Parunak worked with their mustangs all summer to ready them for a September livestock auction. Parunak tried to buy her horse, but was outbid. A generous donor, however, had a surprise in store for the veterans, buying their horses for each of them, leaving Parunak with a big grin — and a new pet.
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Tag: Equine Therapy
How Competing in a Horse Show Gives Disabled Veterans a Sense of Belonging
When serving their country, members of the armed services display their expertise on the battlefield. Back at home here in the U.S., some veterans are putting their skills on display in a different type of theater: the equestrian show ring.
Recently, a group of more than 20 veterans gathered at the Tulsa, Okla. fairgrounds to show off everything they know about horsemanship for a panel of judges at the National Snaffle Bit Association’s World Championship. All are participants in Heroes on Horses, a nonprofit providing equine therapy to disabled veterans. Some, like Army veteran Matthew Evans, are lifelong riders, while others had never been on a horse before they became involved with the program.
“It’s kind of like a milestone, you know?” Evans tells Tony Russell of News On 6. “Some of these people have never seen a horse before and they step up to a horse for the first time, and now here they are competing in a world show, you know? That just goes to show how far they’ve come and how great they are.”
While horse riding is meant to be therapeutic, there’s something about the thrill of competition that gives the disabled vets an extra boost. The judges evaluated them according to the stringent standards they use to measure other riders before announcing the winners. Still, Evans tells Russell, “Being able to compete with other veterans again isn’t so much a competition, it’s more of a camaraderie and a brotherhood. It’s kind of like a reunion.”
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As for the value of equine therapy, Marine veteran James Mincey says, “They always say that the best thing for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse, so there’s a lot to that.”
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This Injured Veteran Healed Himself. Now He’s Bringing His Secret to Others
When Ted Schlueter returned home to his family farm in Deerfield, Wisc. after sustaining a serious head injury in the Vietnam War, he struggled to make a new life for himself. What he eventually found was that training horses helped him heal his mental and physical wounds, and through techniques he learned at a 1989 Natural Horsemanship seminar in Chicago, he became an expert humane trainer, forgoing the use of whips, bits or similar tools. Along with his business partner Paulette Stelpflug, he established Freedom Stables, where he’s rehabilitated dozens of horses. Now he’s helping disabled veterans, too. AT EASE, A Therapeutic Equine Assisted Self-confidence Experience benefits soldiers suffering from head injuries or PTSD by teaching them how to interact with horses and giving them a safe space to recover. “We help families mend their relationships after people return from duty,” Schlueter told Dori Dahl of The Cambridge News and Deerfield Independent. “The horses help provide a common ground to begin again.”
MORE: How This Navy SEAL Uses His War Wounds to Help Other Soldiers