LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Las Vegas warfare veteran who as soon as shut out the world after returning house is now discovering peace and goal due to a horse named Jerry and a group that believed in him.
A Southern Nevada horse rescue referred to as “For the love of Horses” is a singular type of remedy to assist veterans take care of stress, trauma, and different psychological well being considerations.
Whereas additionally combining the facility of music, one thing veteran Orlando Cota mentioned helped him rediscover hope.
“I just noticed there’s a lot of similarities between the horses and veterans, and we can recognize when there’s things going on, it helps us to ground ourselves,” Orlando mentioned.
For years, Cota lived in silence. After returning house from deployment, he remoted himself from everybody and every little thing.
That change started when the Division of Veterans Affairs related Cota to the remedy program at For The Love Of Horses Rescue. A ranch constructed from the bottom up by Dr. Alice Whitfield-Hammer and her husband, David Hammer.
“Orlando used to come up, and the horses would just gravitate, it was like a magnet, and people were astounded he didn’t say anything, he just came up, and he would walk, and the horse would come right over as if on command,” Whitfield-Hammer mentioned.
That is the place Cota met Jerry, a mild horse who had simply misplaced his greatest pal. Each have been grieving. Each have been a little bit damaged. However collectively, they started to heal.
“I saw a lot of Jerry in myself because he was just going through some depression, he had lost a longtime companion, Ben, with whom he was for twenty years. I knew what he needed; he needed a little bit of companionship,” Cota mentioned.
Orlando mentioned Jerry did not simply give him companionship, he gave him goal. And now, he is paying that ahead one notice, and one horse, at a time. Then, over the summer time, one other door opened, this time by means of a nonprofit referred to as Life by Music.
Cota signed as much as be taught guitar, one thing he’d by no means tried earlier than.
“I strum a little bit, I play some cords that I can, it’s amazing when they hear it and respond to that, and just want to kind of like listen to it,” Cota mentioned.
Orlando volunteers a number of days every week serving to new horses, supporting fellow veterans, and sharing his story to remind others that therapeutic is feasible.
If you’re curious about volunteering, you’ll be able to register by clicking right here.
