1.31.2013

horses and veterans ~ day of experience

While I can't seem to find good horse news, other's just seem to know where to look. Note to self: visit my friend Google more often. I was reading North Horse when I stumbled across a link with follow-up information to my post about horses and veterans. 

The volunteer representatives from Wisconsin AT EASE (A Therapeutic Equine Assisted Self-Confidence Experience) had the honor to represent our state and military veterans in the Presidential inaugural parade, and almost didn't make it! 

I found their experience to be heartwarming for many reasons, including humanity and the human-horse connection. Where a stranger offered to board their horses (who does that?) when they had vehicle trouble in West Virginia, and backup from WI jumped on the bandwagon traveling many miles, to help get this crew get to the parade in Washington D.C. 

In the end, they made it! I can't even imagine what it would be like to ride in a parade of this magnitude, can you?? What an incredible once in a life time opportunity they had...

"...all the famous monuments that I had only seen in picture books; we got to see them by horseback as the sun was setting..."

"...there were a couple of times where he was so frightened, and you could feel his heart between your legs..."


"...he put his hand on his heart and pointed to Terry and mouthed 'thank you'... "


It doesn't matter which side of the political fence you are on, read the many amazing experiences of the day here it's worth the time.

3 comments:

Martine said...

Very very moving. What an experience that must have been - and then to have the DownTime afterwards to go on a trail ride through the centre of Washington DC! Amazing.

Wolfie said...

Love stories like this. Thanks for sharing.

C-ingspots said...

That is a wonderful and heart-warming story! There are still lots of kind, generous people in this world, but I guess it doesn't improve the ratings or something. I sure wish we could see and hear of more stories of kindness and generosity because it would go a long way at warming people's hearts and reaffirming them of so much goodness that's still in our world. I think we as people need to focus on what is good in our society, and just wash the bad stuff away, you know like sweeping it under the rug. Stop glorifying the bad stuff and the evil and look at what's good. That's what the Bible instructs us to do, and I try, but with the media it's a challenge. Thank you for sharing this!!