SHAWNEE, Kan. — There’s an old saying you may have heard before: “The earth would be nothing without the people, but the people would be nothing without the horse.”
Just off Mize Road in Shawnee, Kansas, there is a wonderful mission underway.
For the last three years or so, Horses & Heroes has been in the business of matching horse and human.
Using horses rescued from places of neglect and abuse, the trained experts use the healing power of the equine to reach those who are in the throes of trauma.
The “Heroes” are veterans, first-responders, domestic abuse victims — anyone experiencing trauma.
It is a ground-based therapy with no riding involved.
As they say on their website:
“Put on your favorite jeans and take off your preconceived notions of what therapy feels like, because our model is:
- Outdoors
- Interactive
- Physical
- Solutions-oriented
- Ground-based
- Maybe a little smelly at times.”
According to Julie Baker, the founder of Horses & Heroes, the brain of a horse is similar to that of a trauma victim.
She said that bond helps foster a reconnection with life.
This Saturday at 11:00 a.m., at Shawnee Mission Park, Heroes & Horses is hosting a Walk in the Park to let the animals shake off the winter and the rest of us learn more about this mission.
Another saying seems right: “There are unknown worlds of knowledge in the gentle eyes of a horse.”
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