WEBVTT

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I was riding with the veteran on trails

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and also he started crying like , Are

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you OK ? Are you in pain or so I was

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like , No , I just never thought it

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feel this motion again . I forgot it

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was an amputee , but on the motion of

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the horse and getting out there again .

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The win in the face it brings over .

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There's a lot of great moments to so

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many individual accomplishments and

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great veterans achieving so many

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political goals from 20 year career .

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Army have 12 combat tours . I had a

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background horses , kid that you

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actually grew up on a cattle ranch .

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Horses were part of my everyday life .

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I kept that going . Even throughout my

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career . I have the opportunity even

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deployed to work with horses . Then ,

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in 18 years in , I was told , was being

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medically separated from the Army and

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hasn't a little spot . My wife and I

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was physically injured and severe .

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PTSD suggested I should try if they're

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riding program . I was actually very

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skeptical of how pony rides to help and

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didn't think you're doing good . That's

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pleasantly surprised , did me quite a

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bit of good . It literally saved my

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life frankly , and , uh , they realized

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quickly that I had a little bit horse

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background and he urged me to volunteer

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and eventually become instructor ,

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which I did over lose you first . I

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wasn't sure how equine therapy would be .

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Even the first couple of sessions even

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knows to change , and two years later ,

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I'm just totally different from when I

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started . I would recommend it to any

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veteran out there , the struggle with

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whatever , PTSD , whatever issue that

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he is . A . If traditional therapies

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are working for him or her , then maybe

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they should give this a try because

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it's very It doesn't really matter if

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it's a physical ailment or if it's just

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a traumatic brain injury or anything .

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We kind of put the veteran with force

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in , like that , kind of actually doing

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something . It just works on it , and a

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lot of times it's over the course of

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time , and they don't even realize it .

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It's no one that's forcing them to talk

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or making them feel uncomfortable there

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with an animal that's just gonna react

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to help . They are . So if they see

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their horse , it is getting a little

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stressed . It's usually the horse being

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off of their stress , but you teach it

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in . Can you bring your horse down ?

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Your horse looks a little anxious . Can

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you may be trying calm your horse down

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and in climbing the horse down it calm

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them down . Transformations . Amazing ,

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it really is . I actually have five

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levels within our program by bring them

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in the interval . Horsemanship course

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PTSD is one of the main severity in the

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ailments that December from you . See ,

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people that were literally holed up in

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their basements or we couldn't

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socialize , couldn't get out after they

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get out here , you see the huge

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transformation they open up . They

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become more social in terms of

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lifestyle , pain , flexibility , pain

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management . They come in and they're

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so excited to tell us that they were

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able to go over the weekend to a family

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wedding or to take their kids and do a

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football game or something like that .

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And it makes such a huge impact on us

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because that's the goal , the

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socialization , getting them back out

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there , that giving them purpose . And

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then when we have Family Day and the

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families come in , a tells the same

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thing in the kids . They're like you

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gave us our dad back or a mom back , so

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that's a big deal