CARROLL COUNTY — This weekend, WMAR-2 News will be at the Howard County Veteran-Owned Small Business Expo to kick off our new “Let’s Talk” series, and we’re highlighting organizations that support our service members ahead of the event.
Our first stop is Safe Haven Equine Warriors (SHEW), which is not a veteran-owned business, but one that has become a lifeline for veterans coping with trauma.
Army veteran Benjamin Roberts spent 15 years in the Army — first as a cook, then filling whatever job needed him in Iraq.
“I’d go back today with that same group of people and do it all over again. Like they’re my family to this day,” Roberts said. “I had 15 of them that didn’t make it back. Those guys will always be heroes in my eyes. When I got back home, it was like I just wanted peace. After everything that I saw and did… I just want peace.”
Roberts’ daughter Emma, 12, was the reason he first came to Safe Haven Equine Warriors. Emma has a traumatic brain injury from cancer treatment, permanent brain damage, a seizure disorder, and other complications. Horses helped save her life during treatment, recovery, and rehabilitation. What started as horse shows for Emma became a place of peace for her father.
“I like to just come here and feed them or just pat them and boop the snoots, as I say, and that’s how I connect with the horses. There are a lot of them here, and they are all rescue horses, and I’ve always kind of had a soft spot for that. I kind of feel like I have a good relationship with the horses because of that… you can tell how much something can thrive in a better environment when they get around loving people that care for them,” Roberts explained.
He sees PTSD not as a disorder, but as a natural reaction to stressful events, something anyone who has served in combat can understand. Being in an environment like SHEW gives veterans a space to process trauma without the pressure of traditional therapy, allowing for a gentler, more personal form of recovery.
SHEW is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit horse rescue that saves animals bound for the slaughterhouse pipeline and also takes in owner surrenders. Their motto is “people helping horses and horses helping people.”
“I think with veterans, there’s so much therapy and medications and things like that, where we’re a little bit different because we’re going to let you be who you are, where you’re at in this moment,” Tina Snyder, Executive Director and Founder of SHEW. “We’re not here to teach you. We’re not here to fix you. We’re simply here to allow you to find yourself.”
Snyder built the program out of her own experience growing up in a military household.
Her father spent 35 years in the Navy, fighting on seven different battleships, and was her biggest supporter as she came up in the horse world.
She saw firsthand how being around horses helped him and his generation cope with PTSD and emotional wounds that were rarely spoken about.
When Snyder reached a point with Safe Haven Equine Warriors where she could offer the same kind of healing to others, she made it her mission and says the effort has been “really successful.”
Now, Marine veteran Andrew Alexander is helping expand that mission. He chairs SHEW’s brand-new veteran program after serving two combat deployments from 2005 to 2009. For him, horses offer an alternative approach to healing:
“Because it’s an alternative, right? I think that going straight into medication or therapy is a very… bombarding kind of experience when you could get an alternative, homeopathic way to do something,” Alexander said.
For Roberts, it’s an equal exchange.
“There are so many outlets for us veterans to get help, and you’re never gonna be doing it alone,” he said.