Our Director of Operations, Bob Horrell, recently worked with Steve DePalma, an Army veteran who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD and traumatic brain injury. Steve also started his own nonprofit organization, the Veteran Barn Door Project, to help veterans cope with PTSD through therapeutic horseback riding.
Since Steve travels around the country to different ranches for his organization, Bob knew that Steve needed a dog that would be comfortable with travel and new environments, especially ranches. The perfect match would also need to feel at ease around ranch animals, like goats, horses, cattle and ranch dogs, and have great recall, responding to a whistle or call from far away.
After searching through hundreds of dogs at various shelters, Bob finally found Mia, a two-year old female Belgian Malinois, at the Castaic shelter. This breed often works with police and military and are not usually known for being good companion animals. However, Steve had worked with these dogs in the past and was fond of them.
In November, Mia was done with her training and ready to be paired with Steve. However, this pairing was a bit unique because Bob got to spend an entire week with the two while Steve hosted a Barn Door Project camp at Bob’s ranch. By their third night together, Mia was already sleeping by Steve’s side. She even woke him up from bad dreams a few times during the night.
MAP believes in the healing power of the human-animal bond and we will be working with this organization in the future to help our veterans.
