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| -Land of the Free |
| The War Horse Challenge |
| 2023-12-12 |
| [Platinum] The cost of freedom. The totality of it is almost too vast to fully comprehend. The red, white and blue has been a shining beacon of liberty, strength and justice for nearly 250 years, with its men and women in uniform dispatched both publicly and quietly around the globe to ensure the continuance of peace, steady the tides of turmoil, compassionately aid those in need and unwaveringly defend the voiceless. It’s those individuals who are left to grapple with the mental weight of what they’ve experienced long after the battle is over. Patrick Benson, a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) in the United States Army, has seen combat during multiple deployments and faced the ensuing demons. It was the horse that stood beside him, healed him and awakened his spirit after the darkness. That journey spurred him to create War Horses for Veterans, which has grown since 2014 to serve veterans, first responders and active-duty special forces soldiers at its idyllic farm in Stilwell, Kansas. There, the program’s herd of carefully bred and expertly-trained performance horses takes center stage, acting as catalysts for change for the riders atop them. Benson, who serves as organization director, is the first to credit the horses and his team, but really, it’s his big thinking and drive that have transformed War Horses for Veterans into the top-tier program that it is. "These are soldiers," says Benson. "They’re wired differently, and they’ll take anything we throw at them and tackle it. Put them on a horse, and they laser focus. They take direction and immediately apply it, adapt on the fly and do it all with no fear. Most of the service members coming through the program have very little to no riding experience, and aside from the mental work we do using the horses, we have them riding with incredible progress in just a few days." |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #1 Turn'em loose on the Border Patrols. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2023-12-12 13:10 |