News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
CAMP HANA will hold an open house for local veterans and their families Saturday, May 5th. The CAMP HANA Veterans Program works with Manna’s Hana Riding Center.
Bobbie Abell coordinates the riding center.
“We want people to come out the Manna’s Hana Riding Center and see what a mock veteran’s lesson would be like. So they’re going to have hands-on with the horses. and we are going to have free food.,” Abell said. “No one is going to be riding the horse, but we are going to set up an obstacle course for the children to go through with the stick horse races. So it’s going to be a two-hour, fun packed Open House for our veterans and their families. ”
Manna’s Hana Riding Center works to provide therapeutic horse-riding for children with special needs. Last year, the riding center created their Veteran’s Program, Abell said.
“We are doing our veterans program for free. So there is no charge for our veterans to come out and be in the actual program,” Abell said. “If they are wondering, ‘is this something I really want to do or not?’ This will give them a chance to come out and see what they would want to come out and be a part of.”
Abell said the veteran’s program helps veterans relax and refocus.
“My husband is a veteran and horses really helped him focus on the day to day things,” Abell said. “Horses mirror how people are feeling.”
Abell said horses read people well and react the same way people do.
“We actually had one veteran out here that was really angry and the horse didn’t want anything to do with him. But his wife had come out with him and he wanted to love on her,” Abell said. “He wanted to bite the veteran because there was so much anger in this man. But after he was grooming the horse then we saw him calm down and the horse calm down.”
The veteran’s program acts as the first step in helping veterans and the riding center.
“We prefer to have veterans working with veterans,” Abell said. “The next step for our veterans if they are able to would be to come and work with our children with special needs if that is their desire.”
The Veteran’s Open House takes place on Saturday at Manna’s Hana Riding Center. For more information call Bobbie Abell at 931-349-8106.
