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 combat Veteran and 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.

More on the Horses Helping Heroes Program

The trail was a project that had been floundering for more than three years. It has taken 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.”

The course will be dedicated as as a permanent memorial to a fallen friend of the HHH program.

Marine Sergeant Timothy “Brandon” Lay, of Des Moines, was a combat Veteran who served in Afghanistan. But, like so many others he came home fighting a different kind of battle.

“He struggled with PTSD from combat,” said Moorman. “He was a marine here who went through the program of Horses Helping Heroes, and he came back as a volunteer in 2019.”

Lay eventually went back to school in hopes of becoming a therapist and to help fight against Veteran suicide. But in late 2020, during the throngs of the Pandemic, he suffered a setback and succumbed to the fight he worked so hard to combat.

“It left a big hole. It really left a hole because we, you know, everyone had their place as a support person,” said Lyne Neymeyer, who got to know Brandon through her work with Veterans in the program.

The challenge course encompasses one section of a six-mile outdoor trail near Saylorville Lake. It was an area Lay reportedly loved to spend time in.

“He had such a wonderful personality. And he he was always smiling,” said Lyne Neymeyer. “There’s a stillness out here that, I think, makes me feel him.”

The ‘Brandon Lay Challenge Trail’ will be dedicated on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 1p.m. at the Jester Park Equestrian Center. The public is invited to attend. Members of Brandon Lay’s family will be on hand for the dedication. A live stream of the ceremony will be broadcast on the Jester Park Equestrian Center’s Facebook page.

If you are a Veteran in crisis- help is available. The confidential suicide crisis lifeline is open 24/7. Just dial 988 and press one. A qualified responder is ready to listen and help. It is confidential. You can also find more information at VeteransCrisisLine.net.