SHELBYVILLE, Ky. — Equine therapy is a practice that’s commonly used to help treat people with trauma. The process brings patients and horses together to help build a healing connection.
In Shelbyville, that equine therapy goes up a notch at HorseSensing.
HorseSensing was founded by Dr. Sally Broder and her husband back in 2010 in California, but the pair bought the Shelby County farm and moved the program in 2021. Originally, the program focused on day-long therapy for veterans and addicts, but in 2022 HorseSensing opened up it’s residential program.
“We're nine months of absolutely free, phased program,” Dr. Broder, who is 35 years sober herself, said.
She says the idea stemmed from her nephew who served in the middle east.
“He did two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan and he came back, literally a different person,” she said.
That spawned the idea of putting her history working with horses and her doctorate in psychology to work helping veterans cope with PTSD from their time in the service.
“What we found was the vets that came to our day long programs kept coming back and coming back and I would say to them, ‘I love that you’re here but we did the same thing last time.’ They’d say, ‘Yeah but we love it. We love being able to get to know these horses and we understand them,’ because they were also traumatized,” Broder said.
“I asked one of my guys, ‘Well what if we had a program where we did this full time and taught you how to work with horses?’ And you know my first thought was well if it’s work then it’s not going to be the same. And that wasn’t what they said. They said we would love to do this," she said.
The residential program is a three phase program which transitions participants from recovery into jobs within the equine industry.
Since 2022, the program has placed 10 graduates in the horse industry, with nine more on track to graduate in 2023.
Bob Johnson’s Story
Bob Johnson is an eight year combat veteran who served two tours in Iraq and suffers from PTSD.
He’s currently enrolled in phase one of the HorseSensing residential program.
He spoke with us while he was doing his normal care for a horse named King.
“I was pretty down on my luck earlier this year had some stuff going on with suicidal ideations and stuff," Johnson said. “I was homeless for a while. I was also addicted to drugs and alcohol. And I was estranged from my daughter and it was just really hard on me.”
“[I] created a post on Facebook that day because I was thinking about, you know, potentially ending my life and I had some friends hit me up who said, ‘Hey man give me a call,’” he said.
“I went to the VA to get some help and somebody that’s a mutual friend with Sally was paying attention to my life and what’s going on with me, sent her a message about me, and she messaged me, told me about her program and I called her when I was in Lexington at the VA and told her I was going to come straight here from there. And that’s what I did,” Johnson said.
Johnson says that caring for the horses has become his new mission. It’s given him stability and something to look forward to every day.
“This horse could hurt me very badly. But as long as I approach it with kindness and respect and love. It’ll give it back,” Johnson said.
That love and respect is something that Johnson has learned to feel himself as well as give to the horses.
The veteran told us that during his time in the military his mindset was all about completing the mission, regardless of the toll that it took physically or mentally.
“I tried to, you know, just carry on and push forward. That’s what you’re trained to do in the army. You still got to do your job, you still got to do things. So your trained to not focus or not address the needs you have and just keep going and carry on,” Johnson said.
“The reality is, no I’m a person, I’m a human, I have feelings and emotions. And once I got out of the military it was hard for me to address my feelings and emotions, because I had spent so much time training to get rid of them,” he said.
Johnson says that he’s gone through other programs before, but the farm is a place that has worked where others failed.
“As a Kentucky boy. As someone who’s very proud to be from Kentucky and stuff and has grown up seeing horses my entire life, it’s very sentimental and unique to me,” Johnson said.
“I’m not saying anything bad about AA, but there’s other options out there that work for people. And this has worked for me. And I can’t speak enough about it," he said.
Cameron Allex’s Story
Cameron Allex had been living on the farm for four months when we spoke with him.
Allex suffers from drug and alcohol addiction. A drug court representative told him about HorseSensing as a different option from what he had tried in the past.
“She asked me if I’ve been around horses and I said no. And she said this will be a little different for you than the life you had been living,” Allex said.
“Other institutions they were isolated,” he said. “They locked you down, couldn’t do nothing, pounded the same thing in your head over and over again. In here you have a bit more freedom to self-reflect and get to know yourself a little more.”
That’s what Allex says he’s done with his time at HorseSensing. He’s gotten to know more about himself and has changed his environment, which is something he credits for how far he’s come in the last four months.
“I’m around people who didn’t have to be introduced to that lifestyle. So it helped me get a better understanding of what life is and how to live a successful life. And that’s a big help because being around people who were out there in the madness like I was, it’s kind of toxic you know,” Allex said.
“Those temptations and thoughts come, but you don’t have to let those thoughts control you. You know you can step up to somebody and talk to them.” he said.
“You have to want it you know. If you don’t want it you’re just wasting time," he said. "It’s as simple as that you know. You have to want your life to change, you have to want to better for yourself and the people around you.”
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