The story below is from our March/April 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Three local organizations offer equine-assisted therapy to help patients and veterans.
Courtesy of New Freedom Farm, Inc.
New Freedom Farm
Horses are naturally intuitive and sensitive animals. Due to their perceptive nature, they can play an important role in helping us heal. By mirroring and responding to human behavior without judgment, horses can reflect the parts of us that are wounded. By showing compassion and connecting on a heart level, they can help us heal those places.
A therapeutic bond with a horse can help grow “mutual trust, respect, affection, empathy, unconditional acceptance, confidence, personal success, responsibility, assertiveness, communication skills and self-control” according to an article in the International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology.
Equine-assisted therapy is a therapeutic intervention that incorporates horses into a treatment plan. It can be used to enhance and complement the benefits of traditional therapy. Outcomes may include improved emotional well-being in those with autism or ADD, PTSD or mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. People receiving occupational therapy, physical therapy or speech therapy may also benefit.
In the Roanoke area, Unbridled Change, Healing Strides and New Freedom Farm offer equine-assisted programs. Their methods differ but they share a passion for horses and helping people heal with horses.
Michelle Holling-Brooks created Unbridled Change, located in Boones Mill, as a result of her own experience of healing with the help of a horse. At 13, she had encephalitis and spinal meningitis and spent three months in and out of the hospital, at times in a coma. The illness left her with no memories and no use of her body from mid-back down. She felt scared and angry and withdrawn due to trauma.
When she saw a horse that she had known prior to the accident, she was surprised she actually remembered him. Working with him helped her create a bridge to a piece of her that everyone thought was gone. She says the bond she made with him helped her to “bridge the gap between her relationship with the horse to trusting humans again too.”
After studying neuroscience and how the brain, body and soul work together, she created Equine Partnered Psychotherapy and Coaching programs that help children and adults heal from trauma and abuse so they can reconnect with themselves and others.
Healing Strides in Boones Mill offers Therapeutic Riding and Hippotherapy Programs for individuals with neurological disorders, spinal cord injuries, developmental delays, sensory integration and skeletal dysfunction among others.
Hippotherapy is a medical therapy. It requires collaboration of the PT, OT or speech therapists, a PATH Certified Instructor and an equine partner using the cadence and movement of the horse to encourage clients to reach therapy goals. Healing Strides partners with Carilion Children’s Hospital for this program to serve pediatric patients.
“I believe it makes a difference with everyone who comes here,” says Carol Young, CEO of Healing Strides. “Every day, we’re moved by what these horses give to us.”
Young shared that a child who is on the nonverbal autism spectrum said his first words after a therapeutic riding session when asked what he wanted and he said, “I want more.” She cited a client who had been sexually assaulted and was paired with a horse who had been mistreated. Both had a sense of something happening that was out of their control. What happened between the woman and the horse had both learning to trust again and finding their way back to wanting to live.
They also offer a veteran’s therapeutic riding program and Equine Assisted Learning, Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and personal development. Healing Strides is one of seven centers of excellence in the country for Paralympic training.
Lois Fritz, a Navy veteran, found horses provided her solace and relief from PTSD. She opened New Freedom Farm in Buchanan as a sanctuary for veterans to help them cope with PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance abuse and secondary trauma. Veterans and First Responders are provided a safe space to process and heal.
In addition to rescue horses, wild mustangs are a recent addition to the farm and part of the equine-assisted veterans’ recovery efforts. Often, the equines’ journeys parallel that of the Veterans in that both have experienced trauma and are learning to trust and connect.
“Our program is unlike any other. We meet our veterans on their terms and offer them a way to process their military experience among peers who understand them,” Fritz says. “Many veterans are reluctant to engage in traditional ‘talk therapies’ for a variety of reasons. It simply goes against the warfighter grain. Stepping into a ring with a wild horse is an entirely different experience, and a challenge well-suited to veterans.”
According to Fritz, veterans often find that New Freedom Farm is a safe, sober place they can come and just be, with or without a horse, and leave all their trauma behind. It is always there, but it can be managed while being present at the farm with horses, mustangs and other vets.
The veteran’s program is free to veterans and their families. Their second annual Freedom Rocks Fest fundraiser with Scott Helmer is Saturday, April 6.
All three organizations rely on donations and volunteers to provide programs, care for the horses and expand their offerings. As research touting the beneficial effects of equine-assisted therapy mounts, the demand increases, and these organizations desire to meet those needs.
They have witnessed the transformation–emotional, mental and physical–that occurs in partnership with a horse.
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