The stallion kicked out, nostrils flaring. In the ring, it faced off against a 32-year-old former infantryman.
Months ago, Mitchell Reno was sitting in a hotel room with a half-gallon of vodka and dark plans. But this April afternoon found him serenely still as a stallion kicked up sawdust in an arena in Poplar Grove. Slashes across the horse's heaving belly and back revealed fights in the Wyoming wild.
The horse zeroed in on Reno, who wrestles with PTSD and knows a thing or two about scars, the kind you can see and the kind you can't.
"Whenever I get in the ring, it's just me and the horse," said Reno, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003. "Nothing else matters."
An explosion in Iraq left him with a traumatic brain injury, ending the Texas native's military career.
Mustangs help him in a way, he said, that years of therapy, medication and turning to alcohol couldn't.
Reno and the mustangs are part of BraveHearts, the country's largest free equine-assisted services program for veterans, said Meggan Hill-McQueeney, BraveHearts president.
Re-acclimating to life after combat isn't easy. Finding a footing takes time. Many veterans struggle with battlefield injuries — physical and mental.
Reliance on medication and alcohol can lead to addiction. And deployment experience doesn't always translate to civilian employment, which only adds to the strain for veterans and their families.
Many veterans arrive at BraveHearts after trying medication and therapy. The program provides work and hope for vets who are looking for purpose — a goal to work toward.
Veterans gentle the stallions — themselves traumatized by being relocated — acclimating them to things like saddles and halters.
[For more of this story, written by Alison Bowen, go to http://swtimes.com/news/i-came...sthash.yWVq4Z1h.dpuf]
Comments (5)