A CORONAVIRUS grant to an equine charity will allow former servicemen and women struggling with complex mental health issues to work with horses to aid their recovery.

Tedworth Equestrian, which works with veterans from all over Wiltshire, has been awarded £9,250 to run an equine therapy course for ten people from Wiltshire Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund.

The course will help veterans who have been referred by the Transition and Liaison Service, which is part of the NHS. They are battling to overcome mental health issues that can include PTSD.

Fundraiser Liz Brown said: “As a result of this funding, we are actually reaching some of the most hard-pressed people who are facing the most difficult of challenges.

“These are people struggling with a number of mental health issues. Veterans can find it very hard to make the journey into civilian life. They struggle with isolation and loneliness, they miss their friends and they miss structure to their lives.”

She said veterans who have spent much of their lives in the military can find it hard to communicate with people in civilian life. “They find it hard to relate to other people who haven’t had the same lived experience, particularly if they have been on deployment or in combat,” she said.

“Coming on a course like ours, where there is a high proportion of staff who have been in the military and speak the same language, can be very helpful. Very often when people are at crisis point, or reaching that stage, it puts a barrier up if they have to start explaining what they mean.

The veterans spend time with horses and learn about how their own responses can affect the animals’ behaviour.

“Through the very calming and quiet approach it helps them reach the stage where after three or four days they have got to a better place and can start to see a way through some of the issues they have got. That’s the difference we want to make,” said Mrs Brown.

“We’ve had veterans telling us they have reached a turning point after spending time with them.“

Tedworth Equestrian was formed in 2019 and works with Wiltshire Council and Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living to run activity programmes. It also works with military equestrian centres at Warminster and Larkhill.

Wiltshire Community Foundation joint chief executive Fiona Oliver said: “Tedworth Equestrian does a wonderful job of providing hope and inspiration for veterans who are in very difficult and dark situations.

“We are delighted to fund this course because it is giving them an amazing springboard from which they can find peace of mind.”

Find out more about Tedworth Equestrian at tedworthequestrian.com and about the community foundation’s work and how to support it at wiltshirecf.org.uk.