PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Chester County equestrian center is expanding a therapy program designed to ease the stress of first responders.
"I tell everybody little miracles happen at this farm every single day, and I'm just here to facilitate the magic that the horses do,” said Kim Longo, a Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemen (PATH) certified therapeutic instructor at Thorncroft Equestrian Center in Malvern.
She said participants of the free six-week program begin with herd interaction, learning how horses communicate with each other and understanding what the horses are saying.
"I usually have them do a breathing exercise, because horses have this incredible ability to change their breathing to your breathing pattern,” she said.
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Longo said that experience leads to a bonding between rider and horse that becomes overwhelming for most people.
“Most of the time, there isn't a dry eye in the arena,” Longo said.
“It brings out a lot of deep trauma that people didn't want to face in the past and it brings out a lot of emotion. They'll just stand there for 10 or 15 minutes just breathing with their horses."
She said most who participate in the program come with a desire to serve others, but they realize they do even more for themselves.
“To see if they could face a fear of maybe being near a horse, or face a fear of being in a large group and not being in control. There’s a lot of different things that happen during the sessions,” said Longo, who calls their horse riding arena a "safe place."
“There is always a new part to mental health that will be explored in every session, so I think it is really a great process to watch these people come in and the first responders to start off, and how they are at the end of the six weeks. I usually see a softer, kinder heart.“
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Mikaela Potrako, head of philanthropy at Thorncroft, said their first responders program follows the model of their program for veterans which has operated for 15 years with full scholarships for vets.
“That was something that we expanded to include first responders in 2020,” Potrako said. “Obviously in the extreme stress that our first responder community was facing in 2020, this was a logical expansion of our programming."
Enrollment is underway for the upcoming first responder horsemanship program taking place on Thursday afternoons during November and December. Click here for more information.