Sandra Boe is a firm believer that sometimes the best therapists are those with four legs and a gift for reading people’s feelings.

Boe, the founder and program director of Boots ‘n Breeches, runs Horses for Heroes, a therapeutic program aimed at helping veterans and wounded servicemembers recover from physical and emotional injuries sustained on the battlefield. The nonprofit corporation, operated out of Brookwood Equestrian Center in Lakewood, also teaches adaptive and therapeutic riding lessons for children starting as young as age four.
“Horses are good at being with people that are stressed,” she said. “They’re very perceptive.”

Working in with the VA Puget Sound and the Wounded Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Lewis, Boe and her staff teach servicemembers riding skills to help ease everything from post-traumatic stress disorder to clinical depression.

“Horses are very in tune with people’s feelings — they’re non-judgmental,” Boe said. “They’re helpful therapists because they don’t ask questions.”

Before servicemembers even mount up, Boe and her staff teach them the finer points of grooming and preparing the horse for riding. Although some servicemembers are uneasy of the idea of riding a horse, once they get going, their state of mind changes.

“Physically, it calms them down,” Boe said. “You can see the changes in their body language. It’s quite amazing.”

The rhythm of the ride can also have a therapeutic effect, she said.

The end results of a riding session can usually be measured in smiles, said Phyllis Lang, a certified occupational therapy assistant with the WWTB.

Recently Lang enrolled a clinically depressed soldier into the program and the experience helped him communicate with the horses, which in turn helped give him confidence to communicate with other people, Lang said.

“Being outside in the fresh air away from the post also helps them heal,” she said.
Provided the battalion receives more funding to send the soldiers to the program, Land said she would like to raise the number of soldiers in a riding group to four from two.

Ditto the feeling for Boe, who would like to further expand the program to provide for heroes wanting to reconnect with their family after returning from a deployment.

“You’re making positive changes in troops’ lives,” she said. “Horseback riding is something they can do for the rest of their lives.”