US veterans are more likely to end up in prison than civilians. These horses might help them

1 day ago

Ilie Mit

Ilie Mitaru

Nearly one third of the US's war veterans have been arrested or jailed at some point in their lives – a new programme using horse-therapy is attempting to tackle the underlying trauma they have suffered.

Two dozen men and women are leaning against the iron bars of a round pen, peering in. They've all been freed from their jail cells for the morning.

The heat of the Texan sun beats through the roof above as an instructor, Pat Puckett, shows one member of the group how to do something they’ve never done before: put a bit into a horse’s mouth.

The student nervously tries to follow Puckett's instructions, but the horse does not relent, rejecting the bit and pulling his head away. After a few failed attempts, the instructor takes the bit from the flustered student, motioning for him to step back from the agitated animal.

"Horses," says Puckett, addressing everyone present, "are sensitive. People are not. We'll never be as sensitive as a horse – but we can try."

Trigger warning

This article contains graphic descriptions of violence that some readers may find upsetting.

All of Puckett's students here are inmates serving time at Collin County Jail, just north of Dallas, Texas. They are also all military veterans taking part in a pioneering US programme to bring horse-assisted, also known as equine therapy, to incarcerated veterans.

Seasoned horse trainer Puckett, 75, is a veteran, too. He was drafted into the US army as a teenager and served two years in artillery during the Vietnam War.

"It's been 50 years since I was in Vietnam," Puckett tells me later. "I get sad every day. If I think about one single thing, I remember the smell of guts. You never lose the smell of a human's guts. As soon as I started cowboying, I put something positive in front of those thoughts. But I'll never, ever, ever forget it."

The Veterans Accessing Lifelong Opportunities for Rehabilitation (Valor) programme, established in 2018, currently works with roughly 40 veterans from across Texas. It provides a range of services including mental health counselling and group counselling for anger management as well as support groups for veterans with combat-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Ilie Mitaru Horse-assisted therapy has been shown to help reduce some of the symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (Credit: Ilie Mitaru) — Horse-assisted therapy has been shown to help reduce some of the symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (Credit: Ilie Mitaru)

Those who run Valor say they want to address disparities in incarceration rates between civil and veteran populations. Those disparities are stark: around 8% of prisoners in the US are veterans. In 2016, the most recent data available, 107,000 veterans are imprisoned in the US. And nearly one third of the country’s war veterans have at some point in their lives been arrested or jailed – nearly double the rate among civilians.

"One of the things about a veteran is that when you leave the tribe, not everybody deals with it the same way," says Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner, who runs Valor. "Some people are okay with it, some people will just move on, but others don't."

Skinner is also a veteran who found relief from the stresses of service by spending time with his own horses. That’s what sparked the idea for Valor in the first place.

He knows that struggling veterans can find themselves in difficult situations. Some turn to drugs or alcohol to cope, adds Skinner: "They're anxiety-ridden, they make bad choices and they end up in jail. Then, ultimately, they end up here with me."

Ilie Mitaru Pat Puckett has taught horse training around the world, but is now hoping his experience can help his fellow veterans (Credit: Ilie Mitaru) — Pat Puckett has taught horse training around the world, but is now hoping his experience can help his fellow veterans (Credit: Ilie Mitaru)

One of the inmates watching Puckett's demonstration is Jeffrey Philips. "You don't have to go to war and be boots-on-the-ground with a machine gun killing everybody just to get PTSD," he tells me later. Philips served five years in the Navy on two anti-piracy missions around the horn of Africa. But he attributes his PTSD to experiences outside his deployments.

During military training, he says his friend was killed and set on fire by a fellow recruit. Later, shortly after Philips left the military, two of his close friends took their own lives, which he says led him to drink excessively. Philips was arrested multiple times for driving under the influence of alcohol. While in jail, he was referred to the Valor programme.

Ilie Mitaru The inmates say working with the horses gives them psychological tools they can use in other aspects of their lives (Credit: Ilie Mitaru) — The inmates say working with the horses gives them psychological tools they can use in other aspects of their lives (Credit: Ilie Mitaru)

Horse-assisted therapy has gained traction within correctional institutions across the US in recent decades. The earliest such programme began in Colorado during the 1970s. It eventually became known as the Wild Horse Inmate Programme, which partners with the Bureau of Land Management and tasks inmates with training wild horses. Other, similar programs have emerged in prisons and jails across the country, but Valor is one of the few that works solely with incarcertated military veterans.

A growing body of research on the efficacy of these programmes suggests that equine therapy offers a host of psychological and behavioural benefits for veterans, including increased self-esteem and compassion, improved emotional regulation and reduced stress.

There are also some studies elsewhere in the world that indicate horse-therapy can help reduce reoffending by developing empathy, self-esteem alongside a sense of hope and belonging among prisoners.

Ilie Mitaru Puckett teaches the inmates a technique known as "natural horsemanship", which focuses on cooperation with the animal rather than domination (Credit: Ilie Mitaru)

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