Kohala Youth Ranch

By Denise Laitinen

A man is standing on the outer edge inside a round horse pen in scenic North Kohala trying to get a horse, who is standing in the middle of the ring, to obey his non-verbal commands. It’s not working. The horse won’t move. It’s also completely backwards from the way the situation is supposed to be—with the man standing in the middle of the ring directing the horse along the outer edge.

Rather than get upset and angry, the man has an “aha” moment, realizing the situation is a metaphor for his life—always on the outside looking in, not fully participating in the world around him.

He mentions this to the group facilitators overseeing the exercise, who suggest a few techniques, including having the man change his energy level. It works. In short time, the fellow is in the center of the ring directing the horse to follow him around the ring.

The man in question is not an aspiring horse trainer; he’s a combat veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, (PTSD). For group facilitators Kelly and Joe Vitorino, the situation is one of many examples of the benefits of the equine-assisted therapy program they offer at their Kohala Youth Ranch.

“Horses are honest and non-judgmental,” says Joe. “They’re social and intuitive by nature. They see through a person’s outward persona to their authentic self.”

A project of the North Kohala Community Resource Center, Kohala Youth Ranch provides free equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP) and learning (EAL) to veterans suffering from (PTSD), as well as at-risk teens. One of the leading ranches in the state for EAL, more than 800 participants have gone through its programs, attracting veterans from as far away as the mainland.

The experiential therapy program helps participants develop coping and problem-solving skills, as well as increase self-esteem and confidence. Kelly points out that all the therapy work is done entirely on the ground, participants don’t ride the horses.

“It’s not occupational or physical therapy,” says Kelly. “The horses act as mirrors for whatever a particular individual is experiencing. In order to interact and connect with each other, the horse and participant need to be able to see eye to eye.”

It was a different story back in 2010, when Joe and Kelly first started offering horseback riding lessons and trail rides. They had purchased nearly 30 acres in the small hamlet of Niuli‘i Village, near Pololū Valley a few years earlier and had brought over a herd of Paso Fino horses, a breed known for their smooth gait, gentle dispositions, and intelligence. Over time, the couple noticed behavioral trends—in both their students and the horses.

“We saw that some of the people that came out every week for lessons were not necessarily coming to ride, but coming to heal and for their own personal growth,” says Kelly. She notes that some weeks the clients wouldn’t even want to ride; they just wanted to be with the horses.

“As we got better at understanding what the horses were communicating, we saw that the horses were not liking it,” adds Joe. “We were putting people on their backs who weren’t self confident enough to lead a horse or who had anger issues.”

During that time they participated in the Kohala Fair multiple years in a row and saw the same kids come back again and again just to be with the horses and hug them.

The couple started researching about how horses could help people, attending equine therapy workshops and conferences around the country. They received certifications in several types of equine therapy programs, including the OK Corral Series, the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA), Equine-Guided Education at Sky Horse Ranch, and the Equine Experience at Hacienda Tres Aguilas. While at a conference on the mainland, they met Greg Kersten, a leader in working with horses for human growth and development and founder of equine-assisted psychotherapy EAP and EAL. At the time they had jokingly asked him if he wanted to come to Hawai‘i.

From the ranch’s beginning, they worked with at-risk youth, partnering with Sunday’s Child Foundation and Ke Kama Pono—a resident home program for both boys and girls funded by the Salvation Army.

A Navy veteran himself, Joe explains they also offered free services to veterans from the ranch’s earliest days.

“We started a branch of Operation Vacation, a program that provided family vacations for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.” In addition to the trail rides, they helped arrange for free car rentals and lodging for the soldiers and their families for four years until the national organization closed in 2012.

It was during this conflux—noticing how the horses were reacting to people, seeing people want to be near the horses, and working with veterans and troubled teens, that things took a new direction at the ranch.

Already having an established program offering equine assisted activities, in 2014, Joe and Kelly were approached by Linda Clifford, a member of the board of directors for the PTSD Health and Research Center based in Waimea.

“Linda asked if we would be interested in offering an equine therapy program for veterans,” explains Joe. “They were starting programs for combat veterans, people who were having difficulty processing combat experiences and reintegrating back into civilian life. They were looking to expand their offerings to give veterans additional options.”

Thus began a two-year process to get the current program in place. After Linda reached out to them about working with veterans with PTSD, Joe and Kelly called Greg and asked him if he had a specific program for training the trainers who work with veterans.

They also reached out to EAGALA and convinced them to hold a train-the-trainer clinic at the ranch in 2014, a clinic they also made available to the public. Joe points out that while EAP and EAL have been around for decades on the mainland, they are not widely known about or practiced in Hawai‘i and the workshops were a way to increase knowledge in Hawai‘i about the programs.

In 2015, Joe and Kelly talked to the leaders of the OK Corral program who agreed to come to Hawai‘i for the first time as well.

“Because we were focused on providing EAP for veterans, we talked to Greg about doing a clinic specifically for train-the-trainer,” says Joe.

“All the stars aligned and Greg came out in 2015, and we held a three-day clinic,” adds Joe. Greg demonstrated how to facilitate a group with veterans, particularly those suffering from PTSD. Eighteen people participated in that clinic, including mental health professionals from Hilo and Tom LeMasurier having fun with Miradouro Kona, as well as trainers from across Hawai‘i and the mainland.

Then, later in 2015, Joe and Kelly held their first equine-assisted therapy programs with veterans from Hilo and Kona.

“It’s a team—you can’t really do it by yourself. The way that the program is set up in EAGALA’s professional code of ethics—it’s a team approach,” explains Joe. The equine-assisted therapy program team at Kohala Youth Ranch consists of a professional equine specialist, a mental health professional such as a social worker or psychologist licensed in the state of Hawai‘i, and of course, the horses.

The equine specialist is responsible for the safety of the horses and the safety of the person, while the mental health professional is responsible for ensuring the therapeutic safety of the client and facilitating emotional growth. Both the equine and mental health team members must be certified by one of the various national organizations that specialize in training for EAP/EAL.

The programs for both at-risk teens and veterans are multiple weeks long with a weekly session lasting three hours at the ranch. The veterans program is six weeks long and the teen programs are four weeks long, while some school programs are only a single visit, where they focus on respect and boundaries.

Living pono or living with respect, is an integral part of the program according to the Vitorinos.

Since Greg conducted the first train-the-trainer program for working with veterans suffering from PTSD, the Vitorinos have worked with the Veterans Administration and the PTSD Health and Research Center to provide multi-week therapy programs for more than a half dozen groups of veterans from both east and west Hawai‘i.

Joe points out that the teens they work with may face a wide range of issues, while their work with veterans focuses on those suffering from PTSD.

“One of the things you see with veterans with PTSD is hypervigilance, the need to be at attention all the time,” explains Joe. “Military life is very structured, yet civilian life is less structured. Sometimes they feel lost and not in control and they don’t want to show the civilian world that lack of control. One of the things we work on is getting them to not be at attention all the time.”

Horses are prey animals and are finely tuned to their surroundings at all times, much like those in the military need to be for survival.

“If horses see a threat they go into attention mode. If the threat goes away, the horses go back to being at ease. A lot of the veterans are stuck in hypervigilant attention.

“We show them that there are ways to relax from that hypervigilance. For example, we ask them to walk the horse in a pen. There’s no rope and they can’t touch the horse, they have to use their energy to get the horse to walk in a circle, to stop and then go in the other direction,” he says.

Because the horses mirror the inner behavior of the participant, the equine therapy team sees scenarios play out in the arena with both healthy and unhealthy behavior.

“The horses know if you are faking it and because they don’t judge, it allows a positive energy interaction that eventually leads to a trusting and open relationship,” says Joe.

What happens in the arena reflects whatever the participants are going through in their lives. Joe mentions the veteran standing on the outer part of the round horse pen with the horse that wouldn’t move.

“This guy went to the outer ring and the horse was in the middle (opposite of how it should be). He tried to get the horse to move, and the horse wouldn’t move. We talked to him and asked him what he could do to get the horse to walk. He re-evaluated the situation and brought his energy up, and the horse started to walk.”

Joe explains that this particular veteran had previously told them he always stayed home because of a fear of getting out of control or getting hurt. His emotions were controlling him.

“We worked with him to be in control and provide just enough energy to get the horse to do what he wanted him to do. He got the horse to walk and go fast. He brought his energy down and got the horse to walk in the opposite direction.“

“With these exercises, the veterans see how their energy affects the horse. As trainers, we always look for metaphors. The veteran told us that the horse was a metaphor for his life. He was on the outside, and nothing was happening.”

“It was an ‘aha’ moment. It was like a light turned on. He realized he hadn’t been controlling his life and realized that he needed to get out more,” Joe explains. He notes that since that “aha” moment, the veteran has started getting out more, made friends with a fellow veteran, and is even planning a trip to the mainland to visit family. Such “aha” moments are what makes it all worthwhile for the Vitorinos.

“The horses never cease to amaze as they help the vets heal wounds from their pasts, get them to be present in the moment, and act as spiritual guides into the future,” says Joe.

Upcoming:

In May 2017, a three-day OK Corral Series EAP and EAL Clinic will be held in Hilo at Heart Ranch in which Kohala Youth Ranch will participate.

Contact Kohala Youth Ranch: kohalayouthranch.com

All photos courtesy of Kohala Youth Ranch

Contact writer Denise Laitinen:

Denise@DeniseLaitinen.com