Working With Horses Offers a Lifeline to Vets

“You can lie to a human, but you can’t lie to a horse,” said Steve Critchley, co-founder of Can Praxis, an Alberta-based equine therapy program that uses horses to help Canadian military veterans and families affected by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Alberta Equine Therapy Program for Veterans

More than 140 couples have gone through the program, which is open to veterans and their spouses from across Canada who have been diagnosed with operational stress injuries, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

OSI Treatments

Ryan Edwards, a veteran who served in Bosnia in 1999, bonds with a horse at Can Praxis, an Alberta-based program that uses equine therapy to help soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. His wife Andrea, who attended the program with him, said it “provided us with the first sign of hope that we had after going through some very dark times.”