By Jay Cook |
Amid the sounds of hay bales being munched on and bellowing neighs is Serenity Stables, From Combat to Calm, a Middletown horse farm-turned equine therapy program aimed at helping veterans suffering from disabilities and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Founded by Rene Stone in 2015, the program provides a retreat for veterans living in Veterans Affairs hospitals and recovery communities; they spend a day with horses as a means to help cope with difficult memories.
Based around one-on-one, personal interactions with therapeutic horses, Stone said an afternoon on the farm provides veterans with an additional method of therapy beyond the usual occupational therapy they are receiving. She said it’s an unmatched experience.
“The horses react to the emotion,” Stone said. “They become the mirror of what’s going on inside that person.”
About a half dozen veterans from the spinal cord units in New Jersey’s East Orange VA Hospital and the James J. Parker VA Hospital in the Bronx, traveled to Middletown on Oct. 3 for a visit to Serenity Stables.
Davis, a black horse with a white blaze–a thick stripe down the middle of his head – ruffled Muller’s hair and glasses. The two shared a connection, only interrupted by Muller’s laugh as Davis inched closer and closer.
“I basically told her, ‘Boy did you meet the right guy,’ ” Otto said with a laugh.
From then on, the two forged a relationship. Otto began connecting Serenity Stables with other regional and national veteran service organizations, increasing their reach.
But to see its potential, Otto decided to give equine therapy a try. He ended up being the first veteran to come through the program.
“Fate took its course,” he said.
Otto had suppressed his experiences after his service, but the memories returned twice during traumatic events. The first was after 9/11, when he and his wife were on the final PATH train to stop at the World Trade Center. The other occurrence was during Super Storm Sandy.
Traditional occupational therapy “got to the root of the problem of what caused PTS for me,” he said. But it wasn’t until Stone’s equine therapy program where he learned how to deal with the triggers, he said.
The same could be said for Stone, who has experienced the effects of PTSD through-out her life. Her father, a Korean War veteran, suffered from what was then called shell shock.
Her father attempted suicide multiple times and ended up in VA hospitals as a paraplegic after an incident with Keyport police during a suicide attempt. “I spent my childhood in VA hospitals with these men,” she said. “It’s what really propelled me to want to help disabled veterans.”
“It was the catalyst for the real PTSD,” she said, of the accident. “I couldn’t drive. I couldn’t leave my house.”
“It was the only time the tremors, the rattling and the trauma associated with PTSD went away,” Stone said.
As an accredited Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) facility, over 200 veterans have come through Serenity Stables to date to experience the horses in their open pastures.
Stone believes that connection serves as a necessary release.
“This brings you into the present moment,” she said, of equine therapy. “You can’t handle (PTSD) unless you forget about the past. And you do when you’re here.”
This article originally appeared in the Oct. 5-12, 2017 print edition of The Two River Times.