GRANGER, Iowa — A years-long project connected to helping Veterans work through mental health issues is set to open to the public on Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re going to have like 20 obstacles here,” said Eric Moorman. “There’s pristine conditions.”
Moorman is a combat Veteran and a retired Des Moines Police Officer who was hired at the Jester Park Equestrian Center in February. He is a self-described, “guy who likes to get things done.” In less than nine months, he has expanded the facility’s ‘Horses Helping Heroes’ equine therapy program, and then quickly set his sights on a languishing equestrian obstacle course in the woods behind the center.
The trail was a project that had been floundering for more than three years. It took Moorman only six months to get it completed.
“By May I had all of the materials and redrawn the course outline,” he told WHO 13’s Katie Kaplan during a recent tour. “We have balance beams, a maze, a barrel push, a deep trench, a shallow trench, a big bridge, a tire mountain, teeter-totter, and another bridge and rope gates.”