Scottsdale horse farm offers free therapy to crews fighting LA fires

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (AZFamily) — More than 100 Arizona first responders are on the ground in Los Angeles helping fight the wildfires and a local horse therapy farm is offering a free resource to those men and women when they come home.

Hunkapi Farms is offering free therapy to those first responders suffering from traumatic experiences while on the job.

This comes at a time when Arizona first responders are in Los Angeles County, helping fight the flames tearing through the region.

“As they’re transitioning back home, if they begin to feel the wear and tear of it, I hope this farm can be a place for them,” the executive director of Hunkapi Farms Terra Schaad said. “When people are coming down off of an event like this, it’s just all of a sudden this onset of emotions because survival was first, saving lives was first.”

Schaad helped create this therapy program after a first responder who was also a volunteer at the farm expressed their struggles.

“He brought into the light to me all of the things we miss as civilians as how they are suffering behind the scenes,” she said.

Darienne White knows this feeling all too well. She was a first responder with the Tempe Fire Medical Rescue Department for six years, now pursuing her nursing degree. She was recently part of this program.

“I think it’s hard to say when you need help but I think when someone offers something to you, I think it’s that universal nudge saying, ‘I think you should check this out,’” she said.

The ranch is in its sixth year offering this program and is welcoming its 22nd cohort of horses.

The men and women who come to the ranch for this program will be working with licensed therapists and first responders who have gone through this program themselves.

White says it’s oftentimes easier for first responders to hold things in and grow around the grief rather than talk about it.

She wants her colleagues to let their guard down.

“Going out on a mission like that comes with a lot of grief you’ll carry home,” she said. “I think this opportunity will help all of those members deployed out there help navigate that.”

This six-week program is free for first responders and is funded by donors.

The farm says they need donations to keep programs like this one up and running.

It’s one White says changed her life.

“Whatever magic is happening at the farm, makes it a lot easier to open yourself up to that experience to talk about those traumatic experiences and navigate life moving forward,” she said.

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