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Thanks for sharing. Went to a Monty Roberts site.

“We have been working with persons suffering from PTSI, over the course of five separate recent clinics this year. The results are coming in, and the outcome is fantastic. We have people laughing and getting back to a normal life who have been afflicted with PTSI for upwards of 35 years.

“All the way from Vietnam to Afghanistan, your local Police Station to the Ambulance Driver these injured heroes come home in a terrible state and need our help to reconnect with their communities. The horses are doing their work with incredible efficiency. Individuals are welcome to bring a spouse/significant other to attend the workshop with them. Contact admin@join-up.org or see the calendar to see the dates of next workshop.”

I have gone riding at a place in Bedford, VA (off the Blue Ridge) that takes in problematic or abandoned horses.

It was fascinating. The guy has a big pile of horseshoes outside his stable. The first thing he does is remove their shoes...

He keeps them all together in the same pasture, doesn’t segregate them (except for one very aggressive and high strung stallion when I was there)

I swear, he talks to them as if he was talking to people, and as God is my witness, they seem to understand him!

We were preparing to go out for a ride, and the stallion over by himself in a small fenced in area about 100 yards away was going mental...it was rearing up, whinnying, running around in little circles, and making all kinds of noise.

I was watching, wondering what was going on with that horse, and the guy was just ignoring him and getting things ready. This went on for about 15 minutes, and then the guy paused, looked at the horse, and yelled loudly “YOU AREN’T GOING TODAY!”

The horse raised its front legs off the ground and brought them down with a thud and an all too audible huff of anger!

The guy said “He sees us going, he wants to go.” That was it!

For the other horses, he would just open the gate and call them, and they would come over, walk through the gate and up to a stable. “Skippy...come on. Betsy, let’s go.”

At one point, when he called one, two of the horses went together through the gate and up towards the stable. He calmly said in a nearly conversational tone “Mabel...get back here. You aren’t going.”

To my astonishment, the horse just stopped about 10 yards away, turned around, and without protest, walked back by us into the pasture! I found this just amazing, but...maybe this is standard for horses, I hear they are pretty smart.

I loved it. Great place to ride. We split up, and he and I rode together, and his wife took my wife and four 12 year old girls on a birthday party thing in another direction.

I have always wanted to gallop a horse, but most places I have ridden in my life, you might as well ride in a single file with the horses harnessed together...okay, but...not really like I ever envisioned what real horse riding was like.

He and I got to a large grassy meadow up in the Shenandoah Mountains, and he said “You ever gallop a horse? Want to try it?”

I said “HELL YES!” and we took off! I loved it...even though it was plain there was more to staying on a galloping horse than just sitting there holding the reins! My ass bounced up and down, but God, was it fun! As we stopped, I saw a turkey running across the grassy meadow of tall grass, it’s neck and head angled forward for more speed. To my utter perplexity, it took off and flew the last 50 yards to the treeline!

I had no idea turkeys could fly!