August , 2014 Done my husband suggested that I watch the local news, he recorded a segment having to do with horses and horses with PTSD. The program is located in Saratoga New York area. After watching the program it looks very interesting to me so I went online to do some more research. I emailed Saratoga warhorse in hopes of being qualified to attend the program if it wasn’t too expensive. I have done horse therapy before about four years ago. That program was actually sponsored by the VA it was six weeks long that you had to commit. Once a week we would go to the horse farm called everybody counts. This is located in Bern, New York. In this there a we all were veterans who have PTSD or some other mental health illness. The VA program was very structured we had goals and objectives. We were given basic classes on the Pirelli horse game. Each session began with talking about our feelings and how we were doing that day and then again at the end of the day we would talk about what we got out of the program for this day or as the program progress. We selected the horse based on the horse’s personality and our personal traits- my horse for the six weeks was called Flint a white male who loved to roll in the dirt mud and sand right after you got him all the day. Each day we went we would work on building rapport reciprocating respect, I grew to love went he and I had a connection. I still volunteer when I can I go up in mock groom spend time with them. I miss the barn and the people they are the country sometimes have just come up and take photos. Because of my experience I have decided to reach out to Saratoga warhorse. I received a call from the director Bob Nevins and we talked to see if this program might be right for me. I explained my nightmares sleeping issues the fatigue and all the other medical issues associated with the call for. After much discussion we together thought that this might be beneficial for me to attend Saratoga warhorse. He suggested it actually thinks it might stop the nightmares altogether. Wouldn’t that be wonderful to get a good night’s sleep actually feel rested in the morning. Thus interrupt the cycle I have currently dealing with. This is totally free to veterans but the cost per veteran is approximately $2000. Regarding Saratoga warhorse: I feel great that I was able to get my brother Rick into the program. He suffers from anxiety and depression; his sleep habits are very sporadic. It was in the Air Force during the cold war. Basically were hoping to get my sister joy into the program while she is here in Texas as well. She is retired Army in the medical field and still works with biological agents. She has sleep apnea and depression takes a lot of medications for these issues. She is currently having trouble dealing with the loss of my parents in the recent years. During the conversation with Bob Evans he learned that my daughter was also upset. There has been a time when she would get high anxiety, breakout fires this would affect her sleeping as well. Saratoga warhorse invited Megan to come with Joy and Rick at the same weekend I just thrilled. I made arrangements for homemade berry berry pie too show how much I enjoyed the program. I have heard that there is another veteran with them from Brooklyn with my family and veterans his name is Curtis. We learned a lot about horses got educated we learned about their brains that they have right and left brain working totally separate on like most humans. Their eyes on the side of the head and they can see great distances many miles. There were listening in pictures and they have great memory they do however have a blind spot so approach with care.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 23:34:21 +0000