Riding through rehab
Wounded soldiers recovering skills on horseback
FORT MYER, Va. — First Lt. Ryan Kules used the horse, Mickey, to work on his balance, build his core muscles and practice using his prosthetic devices. He lost his leg above the knee and his arm above the elbow after an improvised explosive device detonated north of Baghdad.
This was obviously not his first time on a horse.
“I’m always looking for things I’ve done before I was hurt that I can still do,” he said. “Just because I’ve lost parts, I can still do things I’ve done before.”
Kules was one of a few soldiers to take advantage of a therapeutic riding pilot program here, designed to help them regain their sense of movement, earn a sense of accomplishment by controlling an animal much larger than themselves, and put them back in touch with soldiers happy to teach and joke and support them.
It started after Mary Jo Beckman, a therapeutic riding instructor, and Larry Pence, a retired command sergeant major, met for lunch to see what they could do for wounded soldiers going through physical therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The program is especially helpful, Beckman said, because horses move their bodies the same way humans do when they walk, and it helps soldiers “remember” how to walk again.
And with so many horses on duty with the Old Guard at nearby Fort Myer, Beckman found “a perfect match.”
On a normal workday, Sgt. Michael Sherbondy leads a riderless horse through the funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery.
“My normal job is already rewarding,” said Sherbondy, a member of the Old Guard Caisson Platoon. “It’s heartfelt.”
Still, he and many of his Old Guard comrades jumped at the chance to volunteer to help with the therapeutic program.
“This is a little different. Here, you’re helping the soldiers.”
— Kelly Kennedy