CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Harvard, Illinois, organization that uses horses to combat PTSD in veterans is hosting a 20-mile ride through the city of Chicago Saturday with 30 horses making stops at Wrigley Field and Soldier Field to raise awareness about veteran suicide.
They're called "Bravehearts" and they're riding on what they call the Trail To Zero. The trail to zero suicides.
Marshall Wolfe, a marine from 1981 to 1989, introduced us to his horse.
"This is Batman. Batman's going on seven years old. He got acquired through the Bureau of Land Management."
"It's the non-verbal communication. It's the having the veteran coming in with the TBI [traumatic brain injury> and the PTSD and, you know, the social issues that we deal with all the time and to make the latch with this horse right here, to see those soft eyes and his head down and just, the communication, the spirit, is what helps us veterans. It saves lives," he said.
"People don't realize that the horses match your heartbeat. When you come in and you have that high anxiety and you're all wigged out, that horse will react to it, so you learn from the horse to settle yourself down. They're angels with four hooves."
The veterans like to say what the horses do is like a "country song played backward."
"You get your wife back, you get your truck back, you get your life back, you know, the country song playing backward and the horses have done that for us."
We met Marshall and Batman in Washington Park, the starting point of the ride. Saturday's ride included members of the CPD Mounted Unit.
The 20 miles represents the 20 veterans who, the Department of Veterans Affairs said, commit suicide every day.
