Heroes and Horses – (Montana) Helps male combat veterans surpass mental, physical and spiritual issues through connecting them with the wilderness and of course, horses. Their 6-week program provides male veterans the opportunity to traverse some of the toughest terrain in North America and learn about horsemanship, riding, pack training, back-country skills, stock management, leadership, and the basics of being an outdoorsman.
The program is 41 consecutive days long, and you are expected to attend the program in its entirety. Your commitment to attending their program is taken very seriously, as they only have 24 slots available, and hundreds of applicants.
If you accept your invitation to our program and later decide to not attend, you will not be considered again for this opportunity.
Phase 1: During the first phase of the Heroes and Horses program, participants travel to Montana where they attend the Heroes and Horses Training Camp for instruction in horsemanship, riding, packing, back-country skills, stock management, leadership, and the basics of being an outdoorsman. Participants will also be instructed in the fundamentals of breath work, meditation, cold plunges, and will be led through PT sessions.
Phase 2: Upon completion of Ranch Week, the class returns to educational classes the next day. In Phase 2 there is a lot more responsibility as the class beings to become self-run with oversight, and our students will find themselves wrangling horses, checking stock, and prepping for classes. Here the instructors will teach our students advanced packing, shoeing, equine medicine, truck and trailer driving, chainsaw operation, brand and transportation paperwork, roping, first aid, groundwork, addressing problem horses, and the continuous refining of skills. Students then pack up for the most amazing and most difficult challenge yet. We head to the rugged backcountry and massive Bear Tooth Mountains for high-altitude travel to remote lakes, which provides our students with a chance to practice their acquired survival skills while working in small teams led by a new leader each day. The responsibility component here is very high, but by this time the students have learned what is necessary to be successful on this lifetime trip. The learning is real.
And just when they think the program is over, there is a surprise for our students on Day 41, because at Heroes and Horses we believe “it does not matter what you did yesterday, it’s what you do today that matters.” When the students successfully complete the full 41 days of our program, they each earn the coveted Heroes and Horses Graduate Belt Buckle. You cannot buy this buckle, as it can only be earned through hard work, pain, suffering, ownership, belief, and honestly.
Phase 3: Phase 3 is all about our students applying themselves in real world situations. We strategically work with various outfits and companies across the country to place our students into temporary internships, and also job placements into wilderness outfitter as a hand, learning horsemanship, or working cattle on a ranch. These internships take place all around the country – Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, etc. No matter what a student chooses, it’s imperative that they find meaningful work and keep progressing, or they run the risk of slipping into old patterns. This phase is optional for participants.
Check out Heroes and Horses programs at this link.
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