The House of Representatives has passed an amendment funding equine-assisted therapy for veterans receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health conditions.

Passed on July 27, Amendment 47 of HR 3219—the Make America Secure Appropriations Act, 2018—transfers $5 million from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs General Administration account to the Veterans Affairs’ Adaptive Sports Grant Program to expand equine-assisted therapy programs.

Terry Murray, a Naval Intelligence Service veteran and developer of the Warriors In Transition program at the Bay Pines Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa, Florida, applauded the funding.

“That’s wonderful news,” he said. “I sense that the science is finally catching up with the anecdotal evidence we’ve been witnessing for nearly a decade