Veterans help veterans rebuild trust in Horses for Heroes
NORWICH – Gordon McIntire cautiously lifted the back hooves of an espresso brown horse named Smokey. As he finished gently scraping the mud from the bottoms of Smokey's feet, he set them back down on the dusty barn floor with the care of someone stacking the queen of hearts atop a card castle.
McIntire gave Smokey a kind pat to his side to thank the horse for his patience.
"Only the brave ones pick up the back feet," said Linda Lake, director of the Breaking Free Therapeutic Riding Center in Norwich.
McIntire is an Iraq War veteran from Byesville who spent nine years in the military. He is one of a handful of local veterans participating in the Horses for Heroes program put on by the riding center. The day he trimmed Smokey was his first day.
The program offers free therapeutic riding and training to local veterans on Mondays at Breaking Free's Norwich location at 2795 Moose Eye Road. It features about 150 acres of trails.
Working with the horses is about reestablishing the trust, which can be difficult for many returning veterans.
"(Training a horse is) like learning to trust something out of your control," McIntire said. "It's a long road ahead for a lot of guys."
Lake said horses are some of the best training partners for building trust because of how wary they are of new people.
"The horse can feel everything you're feeling," Lake said.
Amanda Huber, head instructor at Breaking Free, taught McIntire and fellow veteran Donald Mosley to control the horses on the ground before teaching them to ride.
Huber slowly moves several tools – a rope, a jockey's whip, a plastic bag – over every part of a horse named Bo, so he knows how they feel. She swings the rope near his eye so he can see, then throws it over his back and pulls it back under his belly. She showed the veterans how to make the horse move forward and back and how to stop.
Then, Huber instructed McIntire and Mosely to do the same.
For nearly an hour, the veterans trotted the horses around the outdoor arena as a trickling rain fell, rewarding the horses each time they did something correctly by cradling their faces close to pet them.
Smokey failed to follow one of McIntire's commands, bending down to munch on grass. "It's OK, I understand," McIntire whispered to the Tennessee Walker.
The local program started in May and has six volunteers, all of whom are veterans as well. Rhonda Radabaugh works for the Department of Veterans Affairs Zanesville Community-Based Outpatient Clinic. Radabaugh is working to get more local veterans involved in the program, which is only two months old.
Radabaugh said the riding program helps reintegrate veterans into the community when they return from service. Veterans can sometimes tend toward isolation.
"(Breaking Free) is a safe environment," Radabaugh said. "It's not around the middle of the city or the hustle and bustle of downtown."
Lake hopes the program grows so that veterans are training veterans and the instructors are only there to supervise. She wants veterans who may feel shut out by society that they are welcome and cared for.
Phyllis Meyer and her husband Ray Meyer, both veterans, embody that goal.
"We've got excellent people here. It's like a small family actually," Phyllis said. "As soon as we heard they were starting this up, we were in."
To fully realize that goal, Lake said it is important to keep veterans coming back.
McIntire is one who plans to do so. After wrapping up the training session with one of Lake's brownies (she bakes every Monday), McIntire shook hands with everyone in the office and said, "We'll see you next week."
bparks2@gannett.com
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Twitter: @Bradley_W_Parks