GALWAY, N.Y. ( NEWS10 ) — Away from the hubbub of the Saratoga Race Course sits the Alliance 180 farm in Galway. Their horses aren’t for racing but have a special mission: curtailing veteran suicides! On Monday, the farm announced the addition of three new horses to their program.
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Horses Nitrous Channel, Jigger Inn, and Sweat & Saddle are all a part of Alliance 180s’ special campaign. “22 a day but not today!” said Bob Nevins, Co-Founder and Director of Alliance 180. “22 stands for the number of fellow veterans that take their own lives and this has been going on for years,” Nevins elaborated.
To combat the grim statistic, Nevins said his equine therapy program activates the Polyvagal Theory: a model that explains how the nervous system regulates the body’s response to internal and external cues.
“This program teaches an individual — a veteran, first responder — how to communicate at that level with a horse. It causes the horse to want to bond with you for its own safety, but when that happens it’s so powerful for an individual who’s emotionally flatlined that it triggers this reaction in them and brings their nervous system back into rhythm” the program director continued…