For years now, Medicine Horse has had the privilege of partnering with the Boulder Vet Center, joining forces to provide equine-facilitated therapy for veterans. Together, we’ve witnessed countless transformations, powerful breakthroughs, and incredible bonds form between veterans and horses under the skilled guidance of our therapy team. This Colorado Gives Day, we’re raising funds to continue offering this program free of charge, ensuring that veterans receive the life-changing support they deserve.
We took that opportunity to ask Collette M. Beck, LCSW and Director of Boulder Vet Center, a few questions to gain her unique perspective on this journey. Collette has witnessed firsthand the impact equine therapy has on veterans and graciously shared her insights.
What do you think is the most critical form of support that veterans need to heal from trauma, such as PTSD or anxiety?
Collette: Veterans need to do focused trauma therapy with models such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) to deal with their traumas and they are able to do that deep work at the Vet Center in individual sessions. Veterans also need the opportunity to learn to trust again, to be able to regulate their nervous systems after all the traumas, and to feel witnessed in their experiences.
Additionally, we know that the Veterans who have the best outcomes for healing their traumas are those who have a good support system and a sense of community.
I think Medicine Horse excels in helping the Veterans feel like they are not forgotten by civilians, learning tools to regulate their nervous systems, having a sense of community, and helping the Veterans to find connection that can initially feel safer with animals, but then also extends to the other Veteran group participants and facilitators. The Veterans also describe it as a gentler way to do therapy and work with being in the present moment.
Medicine Horse provides a place of community and support. I think it’s all the more powerful because the facilitators are civilians, and they are able to demonstrate care and concern for our Veterans who largely feel most people were unaffected by the wars they served in and therefore don’t really understand the needs of our Veterans when they return home. It goes a long way to thank veterans for their service with action rather than words. Most of our Veterans are uncomfortable with people saying, “thank you for your service”, but spending time and taking action make a difference without having to put it into words. Medicine Horse does this with their group offerings for Veterans. We must heal in relationship and these equine groups are pivotal in helping create that connection and healing.
From your experience or observations, what kind of impact do you believe a connection with animals, particularly horses, can have on veterans' mental health and healing?
Collette: Veterans often find it easier to trust and connect with animals before people. As the Veterans can be with the horses and feel their honesty and the horses being in the present moment, it gives a model for Veterans to also be able to connect and be honest with how they are doing in the moment. To start to become aware of how they are feeling in their bodies and not feel like they need to mask what’s going on inside.
Another benefit of being with the animals, especially the horses, is the Veterans can start to allow relaxation and calm into their bodies. Often, Veterans will describe themselves at a heightened state of anxiety much of the time. But, when the Veterans are debriefing at the end of the session with the horses, they describe feeling more grounded, calm, relaxed, happier, and more hopeful.
The horses are powerful healers and when a person can connect with the heart of a horse it can heal their own heart.
In what ways does the connection between veterans and horses extend beyond the therapy sessions, impacting their relationships with family and friends?
Collette: One of the benefits of the horse groups is the awareness of the Veterans of how they are in relationships with others. For example, one of the themes that comes up a lot for Veterans is not wanting to be a burden on anyone, and this will often show up in their desire not to “bother” the horses by asking something of them or just wanting to be in the same space with them. Veterans have also gained awareness of their fear of asking for their needs to be met in a relationship and how uncomfortable that is for them, especially if it takes more effort or a bigger effort to ask. Work in the round pen with the horses brings up so much for the Veterans, and there are often aha moments they take forward and recognize they need to do something different in their relationships.
Veterans often share their experiences with their partners or other relationships after the groups and it becomes a time to talk about some of what they are learning about themselves. Veterans begin to recognize some of their relationship patterns but also begin learning to trust themselves and their judgment again. This is encouraged by the facilitators as the veterans interact with the horses and ask questions about what the horses' behaviors or movements mean.
Veterans also get to take the tools of connection and resources they learn in the equine groups to help them be better in their lives and their relationships.
What surprising breakthroughs have you witnessed during equine therapy that wouldn’t have been possible in a traditional setting?
Collette: I love being able to watch the Veterans have positive shifts in their bodies and in their mood because of their time being outside with the horses. What I have loved watching as the Veterans are with the horses is their recognition that they don’t have to mask. They can just be themselves and be fully open and honest about where they are and what they are feeling because the horses accept them in whatever way they come out to the pasture. The Veterans have the opportunity to really check in with themselves to see if they are being congruent.
I also love that being out in the pasture with the Veterans, I can see how them tackle their fears, deal with stress, interact with one another and the horses. This then can also be taken back into their therapy at the Vet Center and we can continue to build on the skills and insights they are learning. These are things I would not otherwise be able to observe in them.
Are there any special moments that stand out to you?
Collette: **Veterans being able to face fears. We had a Veteran who had some trepidation about horses but wanted to come out and see what she could do. Her first session it was important for her to just step into an open pasture with the horses. Her second week, she was so proud of herself that “I actually touched a horse”. As the weeks progressed, she groomed and led horses and found a strong connection with both Prince and Chip. In the last session, she rode a horse and was so proud of herself. She was able to face her fears, find confidence, and triumph. This has helped her when she is facing other difficult things to remember she was able to do accomplish these things with the horses.
**Many Veterans feel when they returned from war that they lost a part of themselves or that a part of them didn’t come home from deployment. Post-traumatic Stress and Moral Injury are soul wounds. With the horses, the Veterans are accepted and welcomed into the herd. In a sense, I think they have been welcomed home and perhaps feel this for the first time since returning. This is the start of healing those soul wounds.
**One of my Veterans said, “When you touch war, it touches you back.” Meaning there are a lot of long-term, deep repercussions because of what they have witnessed and the actions they had to take during their combat deployments. I would like to take what he said and put it in the context of healing. “When you touch a horse, it will touch you back and heal you in the process”.
**One Veteran, putting his hand on the horse’s side and becoming teary-eyed, said, “I think this is the first time I’ve really known I came home. I made it. I didn’t die over there.”
The horses and Medicine Horse are a gift to these veterans and their healing process. We often wonder what we can do to support our troops or thank them. If you’d like to thank a Veteran for their service, please donate to their groups. It’s an action you can take that makes a real difference and is more than words. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Make it possible for veterans to continue their journey at Medicine Horse free of cost!
Medicine Horse’s equine-facilitated therapy is helping veterans navigate the aftermath of service. But to keep this program accessible, we need your help. By donating, you’re doing more than saying, “Thank you for your service”—you’re giving veterans a place to feel at home, at peace, and truly seen.
Please consider supporting this cause. Together, let’s help veterans find healing, connection, and hope through the heart of a horse.