Operation Horses Heal is helping veterans, military members, and their families find connection, calm, and community — through horses. A grant from the Marshfield Area Community Foundation is helping them bring that healing directly to where veterans already are.
“We’re here to serve this community, and that’s what drives every decision we make,” shared Rachael Loucks, Operation Horses Heal Co-Founder and Co-Director.
Meeting Veterans Where They Are
Operation Horses Heal has launched a mobile outreach program that brings horses and staff to community events, VFW posts, VA centers, long-term care facilities, and veteran resource fairs across Wisconsin. Founders identify their goal as reducing barriers such as distance, transportation, and anxiety about being in a new place by offering a first point of contact in familiar spaces where veterans already gather.
This approach recognizes that many veterans deeply value camaraderie, so the program intentionally goes to places and events that feel culturally familiar and comfortable. Staff can introduce their services gently, build trust, and provide deeper support on location at the farm when a veteran feels ready.
Mental and emotional health resources can feel out of reach, especially for veterans who are wary of traditional clinical settings or who struggle with transportation, mobility, or sobriety-related triggers. Operation Horses Heal fills a critical space between working through life alone and formal intensive therapy: non-clinical, sober-friendly spaces for connection, purpose, and regulation.
A Different Kind of Equine Support
The organization itself is veteran-run, with the vast majority of board members having military connections, so leadership and decision-making are grounded in lived experience. Operation Horses Heal is intentional about offering equine-assisted services (different from equine therapy). Programming is meant to reduce isolation, build skills like self-regulation, and create meaningful, goal-oriented experiences.
Programs are shaped around the participant’s aims and comfort level: some come to learn HeartMath-based techniques for self-regulation, others are looking for “a place to be,” helping with chores like repairing fences or delivering through Operation Horses Heal’s shared heating program- resourcing fellow veterans with wood to heat their homes.
The Power of Choice
One of the most unique aspects of Operation Horses Heal is their commitment to choice on both sides of the relationship. Humans choose whether they want to work in the barn, be with the horses, or simply sit by a campfire; the horses and donkeys, in turn, choose whether and how they want to interact, with access to the trailer or open space if they need distance.
Instead of assigning participants to specific horses, staff allow horses to “pick” their people, creating moments where veterans genuinely feel chosen, seen, and accepted. A once “shut down” miniature horse who used to simply comply with tasks now runs to the gate to meet a particular child she loves, showing both animals and humans what it looks like to move from numbness to preference and relationship.
Quiet Minds and Coming Home
The most powerful outcomes aren’t always easily captured on a survey, but they stay with the staff and participants. One veteran, who had spent decades replaying traumatic experiences in his mind despite accessing many traditional services, described his time with the horses as the first time in years that his brain felt quiet. Rachael and Rooster call this feeling “coming home” for veterans and describe it as evident in a softening jawline, relaxed shoulders, and a new sparkle in the eyes.
Donations to the Marshfield Area Community Foundation’s Community Grants Fund make stories like these possible by investing in organizations that are both local and uniquely innovative.
To Get Involved:
Learn more about Operation Horses Heal, visit here.
Learn more about our Community Grants, visit here.