HONEOYE FALLS, N.Y. — The suicide rate for veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress and other issues continues to rise, despite increased prevention efforts, according to statistics from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Many advocates for those who served are pushing methods of treatment that happen away from the hospital, including one program that’s helping veterans find peace. 

There’s a place in Honeoye Falls that represents both the calm and the wild. A place where Nick Stefanovic gets to experience both. He had his first session recently inside a horse pen at EquiCenter and a program called Mission Mustang.

“Working with these horses is all about being able to read their body language,” said Emma Minteer, the program’s head trainer, as she guided Stefanovic.

The Mustang he’s working with is a horse with no name. She won’t get one until trainers can put a harness on her. But she’s not there yet. 

“So all of this here is new territory for her,” said Minteer. “She’s definitely making strides.”

Stefanovic is part of that process and a program that pairs veterans with wild Mustang horses. The horses come from wild places, roaming free in parts of Nevada and Wyoming.  

“Just looking at this animal right now, I can tell she just desperately wants to be part of things,” said Stefanovic. “She wants some contact.”

The veterans who are paired with each animal often come from dark places. Both are a work in progress.

Stefanovic is a former Marine who did two tours of combat duty. When he came home he struggled, eventually becoming a homeless heroin addict.

“This horse comes from the wild where all of this anxiety, all of this, it's all justified,” he said.

The same emotions — uncertainty and anxiety — that veteran Phillip Wytrwa felt the first time he entered the stable. Wytrwa lived with crippling PTSD after he saw three friends killed by an IED while serving in Afghanistan.

“It kind of turns into a reflection,” said Wytrwa. “You really learn about yourself.”

The interaction between Mustang and veteran is a quiet dance, both peaceful and intense.

“It’s really a beautiful thing, and it’s interesting that there's so much similarity between a combat veteran and the horse that's in this pen,” said Stefanovic. “You're both trying to break that system that no longer makes sense.”

EquiCenter is a non-profit ranch that provides a number of therapeutic programs on a 200-acre property. In the six years since starting the program, Mission Mustang has served dozens of veterans. The impact is life-changing.

“It’s hard to explain,” said Stefanovic. “The 20 minutes that I just spent inside of that pen is as significant and valuable as six appointments with a therapist.”

“I think it’s our ability to ride the wave,” said Katherine Hatch, EquiCenter’s executive director, of Mission Mustang’s success. “To ride the wave on the good days and to ride the wave on the bad days.”

Stefanovic credits equine therapy with helping turn his own life around. A caring trainer and a horse named Daisy. He now serves as director of Monroe County Veterans Services, where he fights for programs like this.

“I think in the next one to three years, you're going to start to see government funneling more money towards stuff like this, instead of giving the VA $50 billion to do suicide awareness advertisements on TV,” he said. “It's pointless. It's like throwing money in the trash.”

Stefanovic recently invited Bruce Tucker, director of the VA Finger Lakes region, to tour the ranch and see the Mission Mustang program firsthand. He says the local VA is supportive of this and similar programs.

Wytrwa is now a Mission Mustang trainer, who adopted the horse he first worked with.

“It really improved my life,” he said. “I see it here with other veterans. Without this place, and without programs like this, I could definitely be going down the same path instead of changing my path.”

It is a fine line between the calm and the wild. At a place where one helps overcome the other — together. 

“Sometimes we just forget that coming out to a place like this, you don't need to be around any human being that's there to counsel you,” said Stefanovic. “It just heals you.”