Therapy takes many forms in many venues. Few are as friendly or peaceful as the barn aisles and smooth trails at Fieldstone Farm Therapeutic Riding Center in Bainbridge Township.
Therapy takes many forms in many venues.
Few are as friendly or peaceful as the barn aisles and smooth trails at Fieldstone Farm Therapeutic Riding Center in Bainbridge Township.
Communing with the center’s horses is one reason U.S. Navy veteran Terry Milligan visits the sprawling farm, where he grooms and massages the gentle animals, takes them for walks and drives them around the arena.
“It’s all about relationship-building,” he said as he ran a brush over the gleaming coat of Tex, an aged Appendix quarter horse from Idaho — a.k.a. Bubby’s Buddy. “It starts the moment you enter the stall.”
Milligan, 70, of Middlefield, served during the Vietnam War and dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder during the ensuing years, working construction jobs and, eventually, becoming a patient advocate for Geauga County Veterans Service.
That was where he heard about Fieldstone’s veterans therapy program.
“I was hesitant, but I eventually came out. It’s a good thing,” he said as he massaged Tex’s top line.
Valorie Gill, Fieldstone equine director and instructor, said she teaches the veterans basic massage and horse body language using the Masterson method.
“Horses hold pain and hide it,” she said, adding a good massage will reveal where they hurt.
“It gives them the opportunity to release that pain,” she said. “That requires a really, really light touch. It requires you to be in the moment.”
Right on cue, Tex responded to Milligan’s massage by stretching out his neck and half closing his eyes.
“I’m an anxious sort of guy. This makes me slow down,” he said, adding he has a Master’s degree in social work and has been told he is approachable.
Milligan rode a lot as a child, so he wasn’t shy about working around Fieldstone’s herd, but in the last two years, he has come to learn how they are the ideal therapy animals.
“Horses don’t lie. They are very intuitive,” he said, adding he feels a strong connection to them. “I find them very relaxing. They don’t live in the past. Most veterans live in the past.”
A group of about 10 vets meets at Fieldstone on Friday evenings, working with horses and sharing their views about the book, “Horses Don’t Lie – What Horses Teach Us About Our Natural Capacity for Awareness,” by Chris Irwin.
“Vets bring the book in and read it,” Gill said.
They usually find sections that relate to their day-to-day lives.
As he led Tex down the grassy path on a loose lead line, Milligan said the ideas in “Horses Don’t Lie” apply to him and others in the group, but there is more to the session.
“The cool thing about the book is when we chat, it’s tantamount to an after-action report,” he said. “A lot of vets miss that unit connection, a squad or a platoon.”
That close-knit relationship is developed over time and through hazardous situations in military service.
“It’s very difficult to acquire after you get out of the military,” he said. “We kinda have that here.”
Gill credits the farm’s four-footed residents with the success of the program.
“It’s a very safe space. The veterans have the opportunity to be very open,” she said. “The horses have created that opportunity in that space.”
Fieldstone is planning an open house from 3-6 p.m. June 21.
