As we say good-bye to 2021, I can’t help but reflect on how quickly we shifted from supporting the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) with impounded equine to supporting therapeutic horses in the care of non-profits who serve our veterans and first responders. I distinctly remember someone from the GDA management team asking me “Wouldn’t you like to take the money GERL spends on the impounded horses and use it for another cause?” Of course, I retorted with something negative since I was still fighting to keep the State impound barns open. Knowledge changes things.
February will be two years since the GDA closed all of their impounds and stopped picking up horses. Despite the Plandemic, it has been two of the best years of presiding over GERL that I can remember. The pressure, stress and drama are no more.
The GERL Board of Directors voted to associate and support the world of hippotherapy as it applies to our veterans. We immediately learned about the Calvin Center in Hampton. We reached out to offer our support in 2020 by paying the feed bill for all of their therapeutic horses. It wasn’t until this year that we made a field trip to their facility and learned of their other needs. We came away inspired and excited to have a new focus for our passion.
Since then, we have furnished them with a zero-turn mower and a tractor with loader bucket and bush hog. We have committed to paying for a handicapped accessible flushing toilet/restroom, complete with a septic tank. Hopefully, they will be able to find someone to build it in 2022.
We discovered another thriving non-profit veteran therapeutic organization this year. Warriors Wellness & Recovery Ranch, Inc., located in Dublin. They applied for one of the five, $1,000 grants that GERL was offering, which required a farm visit by Board members. My sidekick and VP, Cynthia Anderson, and I have since made two trips to Dublin to visit with Marla and Paula, the CEO and Business Operations Mgr. for this wonderful non-profit. They have several workdays planned for 2022, starting with January 22nd. Cynthia and I attended the one hosted in December, and they had a wonderful turn-out of veteran volunteers who put in posts for a fence project. We broke bread with a lot of nice people that day and we plan to return for the next one.
Since our last visit, GERL has picked up the feed bill for the 5 horses that are in their program. We also presented them with a $2,000 grant fund for their veteran program.
Regardless of which facility we visit, the warm reception and genuineness are always there. And, let me say this about that, if you have never had a group of grateful veterans gather together to make a video to thank you for something, you don’t know what a real heart-felt thank you is all about!
It is an emotional mission that we have embarked upon, into the world of wounded warriors. I know horses, but I don’t know much about their ability to reach into a person’s soul and heal even the darkest of places in a person’s mind. I do know that they possess that ability and I’m looking forward to working with these two organizations in the future to learn more about this fascinating world.
In closing, I have to go back to the question asked by that GDA manager two years ago “Wouldn’t you like to take the money GERL spends on the impounded horses and use it for another cause?” If asked that same question today, my answer would be totally different. In fact, I might even jump up and down and hug his neck!
