Horses help heal soldiers amid Israel's mounting PTSD crisis after Oct 7 attacks

As sirens sound again across Israel amid escalating Iranian attacks, the country is confronting not only a new battlefield but old psychological wounds. In a stable in central Israel, Danny, is getting some healing.

Since coming home, he says he is constantly on edge - sensitive to noise, tense, struggling to resume normal life. Once a week, he comes to work with a large dark horse named King. "There's something that waits for me here," he said. "It's the one day I can relax and leave the chaos behind. There's something waiting for me here."

Alex, 35, is another veteran who found his way to the same stable. Standing beside a horse named Donna, he prepares for another therapy session. A victim of another one of Israel's war he was stabbed seven times during Operation Cast Lead in 2009. He says the assault altered the course of his life.

"Pain you can get used to," he says. "But post-trauma - you cannot get used to."

He has been coming here for two months. "With Donna I feel the quiet and peace that I can't feel at home when I'm alone and my thoughts go elsewhere," he says. "The treatment with the horses is changing my life. Every week more and more, and I don't want it to end.

The initiative provides equine-assisted therapy to reservists, soldiers, veterans, Nova music festival survivors and family members struggling with the psychological aftermath of war.

For Shkedi, the project is deeply personal.

Many participants arrive in what she describes as "survival mode," stuck in cycles of fear, anxiety and hypervigilance. But she warns that another psychological wound is emerging alongside classic PTSD symptoms.

In the stable, she says, something shifts.

"Traumatized people need a safe place. Sometimes home is not a safe place," she explained. "When they come to the horses, they attach easily. The environment becomes safe for them - and they start to feel safer inside."

The therapy is structured and trauma-informed. Participants learn first to regulate themselves alongside the horse and eventually to guide and care for the animal.

"We don't get rid of trauma. Trauma has happened," Shkedi said. "Our job is to build resilience and post-traumatic growth - to help people move from co-regulation to self-regulation."

For some, she said, the bond has been lifesaving.

"We have had people who were struggling with suicidal thoughts. The fact that they can attach themselves to the horse has really helped them."

"We are not just here for people to ride a horse," she said. "We are here to help them move forward."