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Monday, Oct 28 2019

Full Issue

Veterans Embrace The Power Of Animals To Help With Mental Health Struggles

From dogs to horses, animals are helping veterans cope with PTSD and other mental health struggles.

Last year, Al Moore was gulping down a dozen medications to cope with physical pain and sometimes crippling post-traumatic stress disorder that he developed during 30 years in the Marine Corps. Those drugs have been replaced by what Moore describes as 鈥渢he most holistic medicine you can have.鈥 鈥淲e call him 鈥楰evin the wonder dog,鈥櫬犫 Moore鈥檚 wife, Dawn, said Thursday, pointing to the Labrador retriever whose light brown eyes were fixed, as usual, on her husband. 鈥淗e鈥檚 always wondering, 鈥榃hat can I do for you?鈥櫬犫 (Chason, 10/27)

M, a lifelong equestrian, first witnessed the healing power of horses while working after college on a ranch in Colorado, where she was teaching people to ride. A family had brought their 4-year-old son, a boy with Down syndrome who was uncommunicative. Something about the horse captivated him. Sitting in the saddle, he signed 鈥渉orse鈥濃攖he first word he had ever communicated. His mother started crying, which prompted his first spoken word too: 鈥淢ama.鈥 Moved by the encounter, Ms. Hill-McQueeney began to learn about the then little-known concept of therapeutic riding or equine therapy. (Winkler, 10/26)

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