Ride On Veterans Event

Gold Coast Veterans Foundation is partnering with Ride On Therapeutic Horsemanship to sponsor an open house at 401 Ronel Court, Newbury Park on July 16th from 11 am to 2 pm. We would like veterans and their families to join us for a walking tour, refreshments and a demonstration.

Ride On’s program is designed to help veterans and their families cope with the psychological and physical effects including post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury among other issues. Their Military Service program involves a licensed psychotherapist and specially trained horse staff. The treatment program uses the same learning model employed by the military in training warriors for combat. According to the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health (2007) this approach has tremendous impact on “maintaining the psychological health, enhancing the resilience, and ensuring the recovery of service members and their families (which) are essential to maintaining a ready and fully capable military force.”

Depending on the needs of the service member, treatment can be either on the horse or on the ground with a therapist in activities designed to reflect real life challenges. This last approach allows veterans and therapist to ‘see’ where the problems are and explore solutions that work. Veterans can quickly recognize unhealthy patterns, identify their strengths and enact new behaviors all of which affect their families and their employment.

Ride On is offering this service to our local Post 9/11 veterans at no cost.

Please RSVP and I hope to see you there on July 16th!