Photo By Sgt. Elizabeth DeGroot | The SHARP Team and Unit Ministry Team from 201st Expeditionary Military Intelligence...... read more read more
OLYMPIA, WASH. – Under the roof of a horse riding arena, U.S. Army Soldiers from the 201st Expeditionary Military Intelligence Brigade and the directors of Healing Hearts Ranch, sat bundled up around a fire pit. It was a crisp spring day—April 25, 2025.
The Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program and Unit Ministry Team collaborated with Healing Hearts Ranch in Olympia for a resiliency and quality of life event for the Soldiers.
Just behind a fence, two horses watched the group curiously.
“Horses see you for who you are—not who you pretend to be,” said Kristy Dees, the Founding Director of Healing Hearts Ranch. “You can’t BS a horse. Try it.” She grinned at the horses. “Right, guys?”
It’s this demand for authenticity—honesty with oneself under the watchful eyes of the horses—that marks the beginning of healing.
Kristy grew up in a household shaped by addiction and violence, learning early how to survive in a constant state of fight or flight by disconnecting from her own emotions. Her recovery began in her twenties as she confronted an eating disorder and alcohol use.
The arrival of her daughter, Magn, however—born with Down syndrome—truly transformed her path.
Magn struggled with low muscle tone and resisted conventional therapy, often crying through sessions that felt forceful and overwhelming. Kristy, having experienced trauma herself, refused to let her daughter endure the same. “I need her ‘no’s’ to mean no,” she told the therapist.
The therapist’s response: “You better get her on a horse.”
From the moment Magn began equine therapy, everything changed. She became engaged, responsive, and joyful. After just one session, she began signing “horse” and vocalizing new sounds—milestones that traditional therapy hadn’t achieved.
As Kristy watched her daughter thrive, she realized she was healing, too.
That experience sparked a calling. Kristy became a Certified Centered Riding Instructor, PATH Instructor, and Natural Horsemanship trainer. She founded Healing Hearts Ranch as a for-profit riding school and later expanded it into HeartStrides, a nonprofit that offers hippotherapy and relies on donations. What began as a way to help children with disabilities evolved into a broader mission: serving trauma survivors, individuals with psychiatric or behavioral disorders, and those recovering from addiction.
In 2016, Joe Green, a volunteer and father of a daughter with cerebral palsy, asked Kristy if they could try something with the military. He brought in members of his battalion—Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion (HHB), I Corps, Joint Base Lewis-McChord—the “Trailblazers.”
They started with a one-day team-building event.
“That was awesome,” Green recalled. “Could we do more of that?”
Operation THRIVE—Teaching Horsemanship, Resiliency, Integrity, Virtue, and Empowerment—was born. It offers Soldiers and veterans a space to heal through a bond that requires no spoken language.
Horses support emotional healing in ways traditional therapy sometimes can’t. Their nonjudgmental presence creates a safe space to explore emotions and form healthier relationship patterns. As prey animals, horses are highly attuned to their surroundings and respond authentically to human energy and intention. They react to who we are in the moment—not who we pretend to be.
With acute hearing and heightened sensitivity, horses detect subtle shifts in breathing, posture, and body language, where a person carries tension in their body- and they mirror it.
To illustrate this, Kristy had the 201st E-MIB take a deep breath and exhale. The horses shifted the sense of energy in the room, and after a moment, they also exhaled, lowered their ears, and visibility relaxed, their mirroring amplifying the comfortable atmosphere.
Mirroring provides immediate, wordless feedback that helps build emotional regulation and self-awareness. When calm and balanced, horses move in a rhythmic way that can help regulate the human nervous system—a process known as co-regulation. It’s a concept that aligns with polyvagal theory, which explores how our bodies respond to safety and connection.
Walking beside a horse, a Soldier might not even realize they’re breathing more deeply, standing a little taller, or unclenching a jaw they didn’t know was tight.
Many of the horses at Healing Hearts Ranch arrived with physical scars and emotional trauma—malnourished, mistrusting, or overworked. Some had been pushed beyond their limits, much like Soldiers during high-intensity operations. Conditioned for survival, they’d learned to stay guarded, flinching at human contact or relying entirely on others to control their behavior. But through consistent care and patient handling, they’ve learned to self-regulate, trust, and shift from hypervigilance to curiosity.
“Does anybody know what the opposite of fear is?” Kristy asked the group. After a few guesses, she answered: “It’s curiosity. But curiosity can only happen when we feel safe.”
That shift—from fear to curiosity—often marks the turning point, both for the horses and for the Soldiers beside them.
Kristy explained that every horse asks, in its own way: What are your intentions? Will you keep me safe? They respond best when approached with unconditional warm regard.
The ranch offers a sanctuary—not just for the animals, but for people relearning how to feel grounded in their own bodies. Each horse brings more than just strength and gentleness; their lived experience of healing makes them uniquely suited to walk alongside others on the same path.
The 201st Soldiers experienced this firsthand. They began by introducing themselves to the horses, allowing them to sniff the back of their hand. As the horses grew more relaxed, the Soldiers gently stroked their necks. Eventually, the horses allowed them to touch their faces.
“That’s a very vulnerable spot,” Kristy explained. “So if they let you touch their face, it means they’re very comfortable with you.”
Next came grooming. As the Soldiers brushed them, many of the horses relaxed so deeply they began to doze off. Finally, the Soldiers walked them through a small obstacle course made of colorful blocks—a simple act that symbolized the trust and connection now present between them.
Kristy emphasized that equine therapy isn’t just about horses—it’s about learning to be present in one’s own body, recognizing tension, remembering to breathe, and letting emotions rise rather than suppressing them. For Soldiers accustomed to staying mission-focused, this slow, sensory reconnection can be profoundly healing.
“Horses help us discover new ways of relating to ourselves and others,” Kristy said. “Sometimes the most powerful healing doesn’t come from words, but from being truly seen by another living being.”
At the end of the session, Kristy handed each Soldier a note:
“Healing isn't a grand, dramatic moment. It is often found in the smallest steps forward, the kind you’d miss if you weren’t paying attention. When we look at horses, their grace and strength can hide the weight of the trauma they’ve carried—just like us. Many of them have endured years of mistreatment, fear, or simply not being seen for who they truly are. The same way we tuck away our pain, they learn to bury theirs, carrying it in the tension of their bodies, the wariness in their eyes.
True healing for them doesn't come with sudden breakthroughs, but in those quiet, uncelebrated victories. It's the first time they let out a deep breath when they're standing next to you. It's when they finally choose to walk toward you instead of turning away. It's the moment they drop their head, ever so slightly, to let you know they're willing to trust again.
And for us, it is the realization that healing isn't about erasing the scars—it's about learning to live with them, to find softness despite them. It's the understanding that our journey, just like the horse's, is made up of countless little steps, and sometimes, the greatest progress is barely noticeable until you look back and realize how far you've both come.”
—30—
| Date Taken: | 04.25.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.20.2025 18:11 |
| Story ID: | 496642 |
| Location: | OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Soldiers from 201st E-MIB THRIVE at Healing Hearts Ranch, by SGT Elizabeth DeGroot, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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