COVER STORY Hope for Heroes Equine Therapy Consulting and Horsemanship Center BY KIM ROE Uplifting Veterans with Help from Horses PHOTOS BY WESTERN SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY T here’s a lot of talk about how to help veterans and active military personnel suffering from post-trau-matic stress syndrome, depression, brain injury, chronic pain and other mental and physical problems. Still, approximately 20 U.S. veterans commit suicide every day in this country. We obviously need to do more than talk. Robert Woelk and Debbi Fisher have a passion for the needs of veterans and active military personnel who suffer from the re-sults of their service. And not by just moving their lips, but through action. This pair oper-ates Hope for Heroes Equine Therapy Con-sulting and Horsemanship Center in Yelm, Washington. They also provide training to others with the desire to follow their lead and open therapy centers designed to uplift veter-ans and offer an opportunity for healing. Debbi Fisher and Robert Woelk have recently written Stopping Veteran Suicide with Horses: A Promising Approach to PTSD, which can be purchased from Amazon. This book outlines their process and tells many individual stories of healing. “Veterans are looking for nontra-ditional solutions to help them overcome despair. While the medical industry has not embraced or fully studied veteran equine therapeutic lessons, therapeutic horsemanship programs are providing hope and help to those who have served. This book demonstrates how carefully developed programs involving horses can make a difference. You will be moved by the powerful stories of those who find solace in this in-novative method. Debbi Fisher and Robert Woelk have over a decade of experience in leading equine centers focused upon healing veterans and active duty military personnel. This book presents a genuine, compelling story of what therapeutic horse-manship is, why it works, and how to implement a program and make available the amazing benefits to our nation’s heroes.” – Janet L. Brennan Founder & Executive Director, Shamrock Reins, Pipersville, PA Hope for Heroes Equine Therapy Consult-ing and Horsemanship Center is at the heart of Woelk’s and Fisher’s years of work and dedication to the idea that those who serve deserve the unique help that horses provide. 6 May 2021 The Northwest Horse Source Anyone who has spent time working closely with a horse knows these animals of-fer a special type of rescue not easily found anywhere else. Equines reflect our anger and anxiety back at us in a way that moves our healing forward; their generous and for-giving natures reward us for each small im-provement we make. Working with horses requires us to stay present and living in the moment. Horses show us that they feel both our love and our heartbreak, and they have an uncanny ability to shine some light on us even when we are in our darkest place. Woelk and Fisher have helped develop a number of equine centers across the coun-try that provide equine-assisted therapy to veterans and active military men and women with amazing results. They offer their consulting services on site, by Skype, or over the phone. Veterans are looking for answers, and equine therapy is helping. Research shows that veterans experience significant im-provements after just six to eight weeks of horsemanship lessons. Many of these vet-erans confirm that time spent with a horse saved their life. If you want to understand more about how these programs function, or if you are considering starting a program in your own community, Hope for Heroes is there to help. Learn more about Hope for Heroes and the amazing work they are doing at www.hope4heroesconsulting.org CLICK TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON www.nwhorsesource.com
The Northwest Horse Source NWHS 0521 Issue: Page 6
