By David Harry
Staff Writer

It took Charlie Hannaford 85 years to ride a horse for the first time.
Hannaford, graduating from a therapeutic riding program designed to help veterans with their mental and physical health, was lauded Monday with more than two dozen other veterans at Equest, a therapeutic riding center in Lyman.
“The Army was never like this,” Hannaford said after dismounting from a ride around the indoor ring.
Equest, operated as a nonprofit riding center by Nick and Sarah Armentrout on their Spring Hill Farm in Lyman, has provided riding programs for children and adults since 1998.
“It is our answer to the call to give back to veterans,” Sarah Armentrout said of the two-year-old program funded largely this year by a $40,000 grant from the Maine Office of Community Development.
The program is a fun way for veterans who served from World War II through the Iraq War to undergo therapy for injuries or post traumatic stress disorder. This year veterans living at the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough joined in, expanding the number of veterans riding from eight to 24.
Jeannine Lessard said it was unusual to recommend the program to help aging residents who might also have dementia.
“People kind of looked at me like I have two heads,” said Lessard, who works at the Maine Veterans Home. “But it is the most rewarding thing I have ever given them.”
Biddeford resident Jessica Truitt began riding horses to help her recover from herniated disks in her back, an injury she suffered in 2005 while serving in Germany.
“At first I was so skeptical about balancing on a horse,” she said as she took the saddle off Onyx, a Morgan and Percheron mix  he has  had ridden both in the ring and outside. But after years of visits to chiropractors, physical therapy and shots, she said, there was little to lose by trying.
Truitt said she gained pain relief and learned to care for horses as she had the soldiers with whom she served. On Monday, she gained an enhanced sense of camaraderie after hearing a poem written by Kennebunk resident Harrison “Hutch” Hutchins as program graduates received pins for their achievements.
Hutchins wrote “From Maine to Iwo” when he was a Marine Pfc in the 28th Marines. Hutchins said he did not participate in the fighting to liberate the island, but wrote a poem to commemorate those who liberated Iwo Jima in the Pacific.
The verses brought Truitt to tears as it was read.
“Back then they really sacrificed,” she said. After the ceremony, she and Hutchins spoke for more than 10 minutes as his wife Barbara showed a picture of Hutchins in his full dress uniform.
Although a broken hip prevents him from riding a horse, Barbara Hutchins said her husband loves riding in a horse-drawn cart.
“He looks forward to it, he loves horses,” she said.
As he slowly toured the ring, Hannaford played to the crowd, raising his hands above his head, waving and smiling. A World War II veteran who drove trucks on islands in the Pacific Ocean, Hannaford conceded he was “a little worried” before his first horse ride – but he’s an unabashed horse lover now.
“They are beautiful animals – it bugs me when people call them dumb,” he said.
Horses were a link to reconnect Sgt. Tim Bragg of Sanford to his family, he said.
Bragg said he went to the Sanford Veterans Center in Springvale to get a free fishing license offered to Maine veterans.
Then he met Amy Marcotte, team leader at the center, and learned of her support for the riding program to help veterans of combat duty, military victims of sexual trauma and the families of soldiers who died.
“Veterans can find it hard to interact and get back to family life,” Bragg said. “The program gave me trust and helped me rekindle what I had with my kids and wife.”
Equest Program Director Susan Grant said working with the veterans has reinforced the idea that “PTSD can last a lifetime.”
PTSD can be coupled with physical problems in an aging veteran, she said.
Grant said working with veterans can be different than working with civilians and children because it is important to know upfront what might “trigger” trauma – such as the smell of wet ground.
 “You have to treat them with honesty and dignity and learn the triggers,” she said.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219