PTSD Therapeutic Riding
One of the many different kinds of people that horseback riding can help are people suffering from PTSD. Many different people suffer from PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, not just military men and women. Horses don’t judge people for the problems that they have, and they treat every person as equal.
One personal story is from Blake C. Anthony:
“Since completing my tour of duty I have undergone several venues of treatment, attempting to process what I had endured during service to my country. This included civilian therapy, therapy from the VA and its affiliated clinics, the Veterans Foundation, all of which involved medication, talking, exercise, breathing techniques, and even dietary modification. Of all the various therapies which I have received to date, I must honestly say that the sessions involving therapeutic horsemanship have been by far the most beneficial, the most healing and the most successful in alleviating my pain in terms of my PTSD, than all other counseling/therapy sessions received thus far.
I honestly believe that there exists something within the spirit of a horse which calls out in a voice of healing and of hope; concepts which are both unexplainable and incomprehensible; and concepts which I never would have imagined finding myself trying to understand being a hardened combat medic for the Marine Corps.
It may be the site’s pristine setting: a ranch complete with water fountains, whispering breezes and distant green hills. It may be the mere presence of animals which tend to have a lasting calming effect in and of itself. Or it may be the horses, ponies, donkeys, and even cats and dogs and birds along with the flowers and the trees. It may simply be my imagination or my strong desire to heal, but whatever the causative factors contributing to my momentary glimpses of respite and relief, bottom line, to be blunt: this program has literally kept me from taking my own life. Suicide, as you are well aware, is a voice that haunts all my brothers and sisters who have served and have tried to resume their lives in a normal capacity when we come home. It is a voice that I would like to see silenced forever.
This ranch and its programs have a history, a sense of purpose and high moral content. It is truly a place of healing and of hope, where the staff’s only desire is to try and alleviate some of the pain I have endured and teach me a better way to process that pain.”
–Blade C. Anthony
There are many different programs out there that offer therapeutic riding. Various studies have been conducted on the usefulness of riding for PTSD, and they have all found significant benefits from a very short period of riding.
One example is from Rebbeca Johnson who conducted a study using twenty-nine participants to study the impact of a 6-week therapeutic horseback riding program. The goal was to decrease PTSD symptoms and increase coping self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and decrease social and emotional loneliness.
The study found that participants had a 66.7% likelihood of having lower PTSD scores at 3 weeks and 87.5% likelihood at 6 weeks.
This isn’t only true for this one study, or one person. The video below is a story from a program helping these riders.