A horse farm outside Tyrone that started with fewer than 10 struggling veterans now serves 40 of them every week, and it just earned a major local honor for the work. Victory Therapeutic Horsemanship, a volunteer-run nonprofit offering free equine therapy to veterans battling post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, has been named the 2026 Season of Sharing recipient.
The designation comes from the Altoona Mirror, whose annual fundraising campaign channels community donations to a chosen local cause. The Central Pennsylvania Community Foundation will manage the fundraising effort and oversee distribution of the money collected, and the paper reports that every dollar raised goes directly to the beneficiary. Victory Therapeutic Horsemanship is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that relies on grants and donations rather than paid staff, with its funds flowing straight into the program itself.
From a Barn in Port Matilda to 40 Veterans a Week
The idea began in 2014, when founder John Zanella and deputy director Rebecca Davidson developed plans for a horseback-riding program for veterans, officially launching it in 2015. The operation started at Harmony Horsemanship Center that year, relocated to a horse facility in Port Matilda in 2016, and put down roots at an old barn property in Tyrone in 2017, according to the same Altoona Mirror report. Davidson said the program began with under 10 veterans and has since grown to serve 40 a week, drawing some participants from Blair County and others from as far away as Pittsburgh.
Zanella's own path to founding the organization traces back to his military career. He served 18 years in the Army and completed 12 deployments before being medically discharged, and he has said equine therapy saved his life about two decades ago after physicians on his medical evaluation boards in Washington recommended he try an equine therapy program. He later became a PATH-certified instructor, moved to Pennsylvania to live with his son, and noticed a need for a veterans' horseback-riding program in the area — which led directly to the nonprofit's creation.
A Five-Stage Program Built by Veterans, for Veterans
Participants work through five eight-week stages running from March to November: introduction, basic, apprentice, intermediate and advanced, Davidson told the paper. The advanced stage functions as a continuing group for those who remain involved, and Davidson said participants can stay in the program as long as they keep participating and benefiting. Entry-level sessions run 90 minutes over eight weeks, and veterans advance through increasingly difficult levels focused on building different skill sets; after completing all five levels, some choose to volunteer at the Tyrone ring.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization shifted to using only veteran volunteers who had themselves first gone through the program, Davidson said. The group has no paid staff or personnel at all. Veterans in the program often report feeling more relaxed after spending time communicating with the horses, which the organization maintains alongside arenas, trails and fencing built through its own fundraising.
Veterans Describe the Program's Impact
Mike Carper, a 12-year Army veteran from Claysburg, is currently taking an introductory-level course. Andres Rivera, an Army veteran from Altoona who enrolled in 2022, said he has noticed a major change in himself over four years and that the skills he has learned transfer into his personal life. Michael Smith, who has participated for eight years after learning about the program through the local veterans affairs office and the local court system, wrote that the organization personally saved and changed his life — telling the Mirror that equine therapy was the only thing that ever worked for him.
Jodi Cessna, executive director of the Central Pennsylvania Community Foundation, said the program has significantly affected many local veterans, recounting that one veteran she knows said they were unsure they would still be alive without the organization. Altoona Mirror publisher Dan Slep said the campaign selected Victory Therapeutic Horsemanship as its 2026 recipient and encouraged readers to contribute. The nonprofit is open to disabled veterans of all ranks and ages, though it does not provide therapy services from licensed therapists — the horsemanship itself, not clinical treatment, is the offering. It maintains seven horses and uses its funding for the program, insurance, hay, feed and veterinary care, and it hosts annual outreach days at the Tyrone Area Public Library.
What's Next for the Program
Victory Therapeutic Horsemanship hopes to build more arenas, including a fenced flatland section for disabled veterans, and eventually offer a weekend equine therapy retreat for disabled veterans unable to commit to a longer program. The idea of equine-assisted services helping veterans with PTSD has gained some scientific support in recent years, though researchers remain cautious. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis published in BMC Psychiatry examined 13 studies of equine-assisted services for military veterans with PTSD and found a mean reduction in PTSD scores after treatment, alongside potential benefits like peer support, social integration and bonding. The same review cautioned that nearly all of the studies it examined were of low quality, meaning its findings should be interpreted carefully until more rigorous research is done.
Similar programs have emerged elsewhere in Pennsylvania. The state's Department of Military and Veterans Affairs recently announced $37,800 to improve and expand a Therapeutic Riding Program's Stars and Stripes Veterans Program in Gettysburg, and the Pennsylvania Warhorse organization describes a similar mission of improving the physical, mental and emotional health of veterans with post-traumatic stress through equine work. For now, though, the Tyrone-based program remains volunteer-driven, built session by session on the belief that time spent with a horse can change the course of a veteran's life.
