Michael Guilbault wasn't afraid at all to get up on a horse during his recent trip to Windrush Farms in Boxford. Though a spinal cord injury left him paralyzed, the Attleboro man says riding a horse gives him plenty of exercise.

"It's amazing how much you can ride without your legs," he said while at Windrush. "It used muscles that never get any exercise. When you're paralyzed you can't move your joints yourself. I love doing exercise that's fun at the same time."

Guilbault is one of many veterans from near and far who are taking part in Windrush Farms' therapeutic riding program for disabled or injured vets.

The Boxford therapeutic riding facility is offering the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association's Horses for Heroes program, which connects wounded and disabled veterans with horse riding as therapy | both physical and emotional.

"The benefits of getting back to something people enjoyed before their injury is huge," said Eileen Jones, supervisor of recreational therapy for the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, who recently accompanied a group of veterans to Windrush for the first time. "Riding benefits them physically with trunk stability and helps strengthen them, but also with their self-esteem and benefits for post-traumatic stress."

Windrush, a nonprofit organization, offers horse riding lessons as therapy for children and adults with mental, emotional and physical disabilities. Founded in 1964, the farm works with more than 300 different riders each year.

How does it help?

Josselyn Shaughnessy, associate director at Windrush, said besides gaining strength and stability, the veterans' tight muscles are relaxed by the horses' body warmth. Spending time out of wheelchairs is also a boost for veterans, she said.

So how do they get disabled riders comfortable with the large animals? Slow and easy, she said.

"You take your time and you don't push it," she said as she watched the VA group circle the barn. "It's therapy but it needs to be fun."

Windrush hosted veterans from the Boston VA during the first Horses for Heroes session. All of the veterans were able to mount horses and ride for about an hour, with the help of Windrush staff and volunteers. Windrush has a special lift and ramp in its main barn, allowing disabled persons to navigate their wheelchairs into the barn and be lifted directly from their wheelchair onto a patiently waiting horse.

"It went really well; they were great," said Executive Director Amanda Carey Hogan after the fist session with veterans at Windrush. "What great attitudes, a great bunch. They were brave. They've been through a lot, and they're used to challenge."

The vets, riding horses named Judge, Clifford and Little Bear, gave commands and talked to the horses as they did figure-eights around the barn and rode over obstacles. As soon as a rider would call out "walk on," the horse knew what to do, ambling around the ring.

Windrush is one of the first NARHA farms to begin the program, and is still working out details of how it will fit in with the more than 100 disabled riders that come to the farm every week.

It is possible Windrush will host a class especially for veterans, or fit the vets into established ongoing classes according to ability.

Paul Spears, president of NARHA and the board of directors at Windrush, was introduced to the program after seeing Walter Reed Army Medical Center patients respond to riding horses with the help of the National Guard.

Successful pilot programs were launched at Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Myer in Virginia, using horses from the Army's third Infantry Regiment Caisson Platoon.

"It's just a population that we hadn't reached out to, physically and emotionally," said Spears. "Veterans are now surviving injuries that would have killed them in the past. It's important, especially this new service for the wartime wounded. They're being asked to do more than anyone should for their country."

Spears himself is in a wheelchair, injured from a horse riding accident. Sharing the benefits of riding with veterans is especially important to him, he said, because he served in the Canadian military and his father was a World War II veteran.

Eventually, said Spears, he would like to have the National Guard become involved in Horses for Heroes in Boxford, leading horses as they did during the Walter Reed program he saw. After establishing the program at Windrush, Spears will be working with the NARHA board to introduce Horses for Heroes to more and more NARHA centers around the country.

"Once it gets properly introduced, it could be an enormous program. We want to do it right," he said.



For more information on Horses for Heroes, visit www.windrushfarm.org.