MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
You may have heard of yoga with goats. In Florida, you can now do yoga with elephants - or near them, at least. Kerry Sheridan, from member station WUSF, reports.
KERRY SHERIDAN, BYLINE: Dan Bue, a 50-year-old retired Navy veteran, remembers when he first heard about elephant yoga.
DAN BUE: I'm going to go do yoga outside on the grass and there's going to be animals there. OK, I'm still doing yoga.
SHERIDAN: That was a few years ago. Now, he teaches it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BUE: Exhale. Hands down to side body, palms facing up.
SHERIDAN: On a recent morning, he led a class of about 80 people outside under the soft sunlight at the Myakka Elephant Ranch south of Tampa.
BUE: On your next inhale, begin to bring that right knee in towards the chest.
SHERIDAN: The people stretch on mats on the lawn. Three elephants amble out of their barn and mosey around in the open air. To be clear, the elephants are not doing yoga with them. They're nearby, safely behind a double wire fence.
LOU BARREDA: We have three elephants right now.
SHERIDAN: That's Lou Barreda, owner of the ranch.
BARREDA: They're all retired. They mostly did entertainment throughout their lives.
SHERIDAN: After a life in the circus and on movie sets, they now twirl hay with their trunks, kind of like spaghetti on a fork, and scoop it into their mouths. Even though the elephants are not doing any downward dogs or chaturangas, Barreda thinks they get something out of the class.
BARREDA: Seeing new people, new smells every day really kind of enriches them. They love being outside, but they also like things to do. So even with the yoga kind of in the background, they do notice.
BUE: As we come into a sphinx pose.
SHERIDAN: The students prop themselves up on their elbows. Facing them, behind the fence, is an elephant with long, white tusks, flapping her ears. After class, Nancy Ross says she was mesmerized.
NANCY ROSS: I could feel the energy as we were doing this. I had to keep opening my eyes. This is amazing.
SHERIDAN: The classes are free for veterans like her.
ROSS: I am a Navy vet - antisubmarine warfare. Just got a little PTSD going on.
SHERIDAN: Most who come here are civilians who pay a fee to benefit Operation Warrior Resolution. They help veterans resolve trauma. Scott Schwalm is the director of programming.
SCOTT SCHWALM: Most of us are addicted to racing thoughts and ruminating over the past or the future.
SHERIDAN: It turns out watching elephants while stretching kind of helps with that.
SCHWALM: This is a great exercise of being in the now.
SHERIDAN: A time for elephants and humans alike to breathe and take in the beauty around.
For NPR News, I'm Kerry Sheridan in Myakka City, Florida.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.