Hearts Saving Hearts – Mena, Arkansas

Our Mission

Here at Hearts Saving Hearts (HSH) LLC we bring the healing powers of the horse heart to the hearts of our struggling youth, veterans, and people with various health conditions. HSH strives to bring rescued horses together with individuals in need of a mutually symbiotic healing relationship.

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Veterans Deserve Our Help

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) impacts 11-20% of Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans, approximately 12% of Gulf War veterans, and 15% of Vietnam veterans. (Per DAV.org)

Equine-assisted services are an effective treatment for veterans, helping them to overcome trauma, reduce symptoms of PTSD and depression, and improve their overall well-being.

Our purpose is to bring the healing power of horses to the rural community of Mena, Arkansas and beyond and to help struggling veterans come together with our rescued horses and undergo the proven healing powers of a symbiotic healing relationship.

How Our Equine Assisted Services Will Help

We anticipate that veterans with PTSD, anxiety and depression will find our facility a serene place to heal their trauma, improve relationships, through therapeutic horsemanship, physical therapy, hippotherapy, and a sports adaptive competition. The competition portion of our program will invite different veteran equine programs to compete in an obstacle course whereby each task will be judged and scored.

BUILD TRUST

Earning the trust of a rescue horse can help veterans learn to trust themselves and other people again.

IMPROVE COMMUNICATION

Veterans learn to recognize feelings, regulate emotions, and communicate better through interactions with horses.

DEVELOP A SENSE OF CONTROL

Veterans can learn to focus and develop a sense of control through activities like talking with, brushing, and leading horses.

IMPROVE RELATIONSHIPS

Veterans can gain insights into human relationships which can help them build stronger bonds with loved ones.

IMPROVE OTHER SKILLS

Veterans improve assertiveness, empathy, stress tolerance, flexibility, impulse control, problem-solving skills, and self-regard.

IMPROVE SOCIAL CONNECTION

Adaptive Sports competitions will provide a sense of purpose, social connection, and both physical and emotional benefits.

Equine Assisted Services

Horses can be an emotional mirror for humans. They respond to the feeling state we show. They are herd and prey animals, which means that they have a strong emotional sense and use this sense as a survival tool. Because of these qualities, horses can be used to help people heal from a variety of psychological issues.

HSH recognizes the need for a program whereby people and horses come together for healing. Many of us here as HSH have seen the therapeutic value of a bond formed between human and horse. It is said that a horse is the emotional mirror to how we feel and perceive the world.

Coming Soon! Check back for more information.

Horse Rescue

Today many horses are considered vulnerable for kill pens and/or mistreatment. In the United States, slaughtering horses is illegal and deemed inhumane, yet 82,000 to150,000 home-able horses are transported in horrifically cruel conditions and brutally slaughtered in Mexico, Canada, and Japan. These horses are vulnerable souls due to a multitude of different reasons such as happenstance, age, neglect, past injury and poor training. Here at HSH we hope to be good stewards of these majestic souls that have been our companions for thousands and thousands of years.

HSH utilizes a strategic process for matching healthy, rehabilitated animals with compatible, loving, and permanent adoptive homes; to provide long term care for unadoptable animals; and to educate the community about abused, neglected, abandoned, unwanted, and/or slaughter-bound animals.

ADOPTION CONTRACT