Army's Top Horses Help Heal America's Wounded Vets
Oct. 8, 2009— -- For more than 60 years, members of the Army's Caisson Platoon and their horses have escorted America's fallen to their final resting places in Arlington National Cemetery...with honor and pride.
The Caisson Platoon is part of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, the nation's oldest active infantry regiment and the Army's "premiere ceremonial unit."
And now, this "old guard" is taking on a new role by helping to heal America's wounded veterans with the help of the horses.
Injured soldiers are transported from Walter Reed Army Medical Center each Thursday morning to the platoon's base in Fort Myer, Va., for weekly horse riding sessions.
Some soldiers are just learning to walk again; others are on prosthetics.
For them, the riding has proven to be therapeutic and shown dramatic results , according to the program's directors.
"The horses have done magic for them," Mary Jo Beckman, co-founder of Caisson Platoon Equine Assisted Programs, told ABC News' Bob Woodruff. "They tell me they look forward to Thursday morning... this is what makes life bearable for them," Beckman said.
Although the methods seem fairly simple -- proper riding posture and deep breaths while horse riding, the results can be felt as soon as the soldiers dismount and touch the ground.
"It...retrains those upper leg muscles to move the way you want them to move when you are walking -- either with your natural leg or with a prosthetic," explained Larry Pence, the other co-founder of Caisson Platoon Equine Assisted Programs."
One striking difference from traditional horse riding is that the wounded soldiers use pads, not saddles, to get a better feel of the horses' movement.
"When a horse moves at the walk, their hip movement is the same as yours and mine," explained Pence. "We want them to get in synch with the horse," Pence added.
In addition to helping soldiers walk easier, the weekly sessions also help alleviate the pain associated with prosthetics.
"It's great for your core," said Army Staff Sgt. Mike Cain, who lost a leg to a roadside bomb in Iraq. "You have to keep yourself stable and balanced enough to stay on the horse. You have to use yourself to stay up," Cain added.
