n the now
partner with.” She adds, “Norman has made a significant difference with veterans in such areas as personal development, self-awareness, and trust.”
H
Norman steadily carries one of his student riders at Shangri-La Therapeutic Academy of Riding.
very concentrated period of time which sometimes makes it difficult to assess progress. At the program’s completion, students are asked to write letters to their horses explaining what they would like him or her to know about them. Not only has Norman received an outpouring of love in his letters, but past program participants often request to come back and visit with him, demonstrating both a strong and unique bond to the horse they chose to partner with during their time there. STAR is a Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl.) Premiere Accredited center. The PATH organization promotes equine-assisted activities and therapies for individuals with special needs. Along with STAR’s Changing Strides program, the facility also offers a Horses & Heroes program affiliated with the Veteran’s Administration and the Wounded Warrior Project. According to Dolson, Norman also plays a pivotal role in this other important program. Issues facing our veterans can include traumatic brain injury (TBI), amputation, sensory loss and/or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In addition, Dolson states that “our participants who are veterans also sometimes struggle with communication issues. Their particular communication style may have served them well during their time in the military, but it can be difficult to transition back to a style more commonly seen with civilians, including interpreting visual cues.” She says horses, and Norman in particular, “are good at reflecting back and helping veterans see behaviors they are projecting.” This is a skill that otherwise might not be so easily achieved. Once those behaviors are recognized, program participants can begin to more readily adjust to a communication style suitable for home or in the workplace. Dolson says that Norman is “often one of the top picks for our clients in this program to 28
arabian horse
life
Issue 4. 2018
HERO
Next there’s an actual Hero. He’s an unregistered Arabian-cross with a backstory that still brings tears to the eyes of his owners. Hero is a therapy horse in the Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch program in Bend, Ore. Crystal Peaks provides services to youth between the ages of six and 18. While any child who wishes to do so may participate, most of the program’s clients are a part of the foster care system. They are children who have an incarcerated parent or a parent battling drug addiction, are from a broken home, are abuse victims, or have experienced bullying while at school. According to Katie Jacobsen, Public Relations Director with Crystal Peaks, hunters alerted authorities about a horse in the wilderness suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. It was later learned that Hero had been a part of a children’s summer camp, and a wrangler who worked there was instructed to find the horse a new home. Rather than follow through, the wrangler took him out into the forest, shot him twice, and left him to die. Hero survived more than a week before being discovered by the hunters. The then six-year-old gelding had to regain his strength from the large volume of blood he lost and be treated for an abscess behind his eye before he was ready to undergo surgery to remove his eye and access bullet fragments at Bend Equine Medical Center. The Center contacted Crystal Peaks Ranch, with whom they had an ongoing relationship,
While Hero was recovering from surgery, he showed that he had all the makings of a phenomenal therapy horse.