IN-DEPTH: 'A HORSE SAVED THE GUY' — Canadian legions help veterans heal with equine therapy

Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veterans have been learning to manage Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) through special family-oriented equine therapy programs. Spending time with horses has been found to greatly impact a veteran's life — in addition to the healing aspects linked to the body’s natural release of dopamine neurotransmitters while around large animals, horses are a source of feedback for human behaviour. For example, a veteran with PTSD, suicidal thoughts, or another Operational Stress Injury (OSI) may not be aware of the impact of their behaviour — even something as simple as their body language — on other people, especially their spouse and family. He or she might have a habit of standing with their arms crossed in an unapproachable manner. A horse will respond perhaps by backing away, demonstrating to the veteran what they are communicating with their own body. CanPraxis, an Alberta-based national charity, is the first program of its kind. Founder and director Steve Critchley emphasized how critical it is to employ a "professionally facilitated program" and warned of the fallout should these details be neglected. The treatment program, funded by donations from Canadian legions and other groups, includes registered psychologists and experienced mediators to work with the veterans to understand their behaviour based on what they learned from the horse..The Department of National Defence (DND) in August acknowledged for the first time CAF suicide rates are increasingly common and "higher than expected." Further, veterans who are struggling with an injury have been offered state sanctioned euthanasia by Veterans Affairs Canada. These facts illustrate the dangerous vacuum a CAF veteran could fall into — yet, there is hope. Gen. Cameron Ross of the Strathcona regiment in Edmonton, an armoured unit of about 500 soldiers, told the Western Standard the suicide rate is "very concerning to the forces, and has been for some time.""This touches on the ability of CAF to care for people who have mental health issues," he said, adding that he is "very aware of many colleagues over the years who have PTSD, and it's horrible, and some members decide to commit suicide.".Ross shared the story of one of his colleagues, a soldier from his regiment. “"The individual did not commit suicide, but was close to it," he said. "He had served in Afghanistan once, two times, maybe more, and came home to Edmonton with raging anger management issues."Ross explained there is "only so much the military can do" in terms of treatment once a soldier comes home. After providing medical services and specialists on the army base, the member usually gets a medical release and transferred into provincial care. This particular soldier was going to be handed over to the province to have his PTSD treated, which is "the norm throughout Canada," according to Ross. "The taxpayer pays the uniforms to go and kill bad guys, it’s as simple as that. The military is not responsible for the full welfare of individuals, that's a provincial responsibility," he said. "But the transition between military and civilian life is a military responsibility," Ross continued. "So this (member) was about to be transferred out of the military to provincial medical care, but the Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) told the commanding officer of the regiment, 'Wait a minute, let me try one more thing.'""This soldier had enough bravery to write his feelings on the regimental website," he explained, "and he admitted that he had anger management issues, but when he was assigned his own horse and was taught how to ride this horse, he said, 'my anger management started to be managed.' He said 'I'd come down to the stables and I'd have to muck out the stalls, I'd have to feed and water the horse, I'd have to brush it down, I'd have to take it for its exercise.'""'I might have a bad hair day. The horse didn't care'," Ross recalled him saying. "He said 'the horse would look at me as if to say, Okay, are we done? Now? Let's go for a ride.'""This guy always said, 'I was dependent on the horse as much as the horse was dependent on me', so here was a way of taking care of a soldier who had real mental health issues that the system, both military and civilian, were not solving. The horse did.""A horse saved the guy," Ross declared. The member stayed on in the army and he went back into full time duty. "This is an example of welfare internally within the forces," said Ross. .Darren Halpin, general manager of Horse in Hand, the ranch that hosts CanPraxis therapy programs for veterans, said horses "really show with their body language, and you can't lie to them — so they point out things that are super obvious to other people, but sometimes have a hard time saying.""It's really amazing that the changes that can be made [in the veterans], or the awareness that ends up happening," Halpin told the Western Standard. He has for years hosted Critchley and other therapists at his ranch, where CanPraxis would work with the horses and veterans to observe the horses' reactions to their human counterparts. Veterans bring their families along for the three-day retreat, "support that's close with them [so] they can help bring everything that they've been working on over the past three days, and transition that back home," said Halpin. "So they have that support at home and also understanding of what they're going through and the journey that they're going through together to be that person, or people, that they lean on."The benefit of treating veterans in the equine group therapy is “the sense of they've been through it together," said Halpin. "They feel like, by the end, a bunch of brothers and sisters. They have a lot of the same kind of feeling towards working together. They're huge on teamwork, they're huge on supporting each other, all that kind of stuff.""All of the veterans stick together like glue. There's this feeling of camaraderie — or understanding, togetherness, that kind of thing.".Halpin described how Critchley helps veterans understand their body language through the horse’s reaction. "The horse is backing away, not that the veteran is doing anything specific, but just the energy that he's giving out with, like his arms crossed whatever it is, and the horse wants nothing to do with them," he said. "And Steve looks at him, and he says, 'Okay, so you're making that animal feel that way. How do you think you're making the people around you feel? How do you think your wife's feeling? How do you think your kid's feeling? How do you think of all that stuff?'""And you just see the light bulb go off and tears start welling up in his eyes.".Critchley, who served in the CAF for 28 years, told the Western Standard he believes a fundamental step for veterans healing from PTSD is being able to have an effective conversation each day with a loved one. "There will be no forward movement in your recovery until folks are able to have at least one effective conversation that day with the person most important to them," he said. For this reason, the program is designed to include the veteran’s partner or close family member to the first phase, and the whole family to the second phase. Critchley emphasized the seriousness of equine therapy, that, despite some programs offering horses for feel-good therapy sessions, CanPraxis is "not into the rainbows.""This injury is killing people," he warned, "and because PTSD has the potential to be a fatal injury, we don't have time to play games. On every one of our programs, we have at least one suicidal individual. We've now seen suicidal preteens [family members of the veterans.]""So we don't have time for the background play games," he added. "This injury destroys people's lives, families, relationships and kills people. So we need to have an extensive understanding of how the injury affects individuals and their families to be able to understand what it is we're doing that is having a positive effect on these folks.""Our immersive multi-day programs are designed to create that environment that allows individuals to gain greater understanding how the injury is affecting themselves, affecting others, the relationships, their ability to have an effective conversation, and then, working with the facilitators and their peers and their own family members, start to create ways to have these safe conversations in the family home.".All CanPraxis are registered psychologists with specialized experience in trauma and military culture. The program also includes four PhD neuroscience researchers, who study "how to use that neuroscience to the best benefit of the participants."A program exclusively for female veterans is also available, called the Three Sisters Camp. These programs are free for the veterans to participate in, regardless of where in Canada they live. Even flights and meals for their families are included. CanPraxis is funded by donations and a provincial grant, though Critchley said they’ve had to postpone some programs due to donations falling 50% in 2024. Further, its Breaking the Cycle program is at the end of a provincial funding grant from Veterans Affairs Canada. CanPraxis is now tasked with creating a plan to pilot and run a family program for veterans diagnosed with an OSI and their families. "We'll be looking for additional funding," Critchley said. "We're looking to expand.".According to the self-feedback monitored by a CanPraxis psychologist, 93% of participants, short term and multi-year term "have stated they've learned something positive that they use either part time or full time in their everyday life," said Critchley.Calgary Dr. Brenda Abbey, who works with troubled youth and horses, facilitated a study that found the human brain when around horses produces dopamine, a natural chemical that makes a person feel good. CanPraxis applied Abbey’s findings to its veteran equine therapy programs. "When the primitive part of the brain is producing dopamine that reconnects the higher functioning part of the brain with the primitive part of the brain, we can sneak in a little door, plant some seeds of education and sneak back out," explained Critchley."We also know it's an artificial environment, not reality. These folks are going to go back home without a horse, right? So we can't claim we've helped them, because it was that natural feel good chemical bump being pumped out by their brain in an environment that's not part of their everyday life.""The baggage you pick up can control you, or you can learn to control your baggage," Critchley concluded. "PTSD will always be there. The difference is learning how to overcome the effects of PTSD so that you're able to move forward, regain your life, regain your family, regain your relationships, and move forward in a positive and productive way."