Horses help wounded soldiers walk again

[Fleshdancer]

What a sweet solution to such a horrible situation...


ARLINGTON, Va. - Spec. Maxwell Ramsey made small kissing sounds as he tried to coax Wylie, a muscular black Percheron horse, over to the platform where the soldier stood. He swung the metal and plastic limb that is his new left leg over Wylie's back and sat down in the saddle.

"Relax your leg. Take a deep breath. Remember you are sitting on a big old cushion," Mary Jo Beckman, a therapeutic riding instructor, said to Ramsey as he and Wylie headed out into a dusty yard at Fort Myer.

The black and white horses that usually pull caissons during military funerals at neighboring Arlington National Cemetery are helping soldiers such as Ramsey in their long struggle to learn to walk again, to regain strength and to believe in their new limbs.

"It gives me the confidence to know that I lost an arm and a leg but not the ability to do certain things," 1st Lt. Ryan Kules, 25, a Tempe, Ariz., native who was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq in November, said Friday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060603/ap_on_re_us/wounded_soldiers_horses;_ylt=AuGVEgjjtOTZHdBZpIeOYjFvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Horses as therapy aides are incredible. I have stories of horses used

to help autistic children, and in many other instances of disabled people who are able to get strength and a sense of self-confidence from horses.
It is amazing how much animals can teach us if we let them.

[Fleshdancer]

3. I had no idea horses were used for therapy

what a wonderful idea. :)

[CottonBear]

4. Horses are used for many kinds of therapy for adults & children.

Horseback riding replicates the movements of the hips and internal organs that occurs when an able bodied person walks. Therefore, it is excellent exercise for those people who can no longer (or have never) walked. Riding increases confidence and mental happiness as well as helps to build muscle strength and increase flexibility. There are many therapeutic riding programs. There are Para-Olympic equestrians all over the world who compete in hunters and dressage. Many of these people have severe disabilites like spina- bifida and paralysis.

[Eurobabe]

2. Horses rule!

They are right up their as my favorite animal (next to cats of course.) Majestic, proud, sensitive, I absolutely adore them. Sometimes I prefer them to people, they are very calming.

[Beaverhausen]

5. Kick

This is a wonderful story.