In late October, Veterans from Pasadena City College came to visit War Horse Creek. They were able to spend the day with our mustangs working within our Collaborative Horsemanship modality. In addition, they helped around the stables, putting up fencing and raked a ton of pine needles that needed to be removed. We are so grateful to each of these Veterans for their help, and to the many donors who have given in support of our updated horse facilities.

One of the Veteran visitors, Hanson Tat, had an especially transformational experience.

Read about Hanson’s time with Trapper below.

To be honest with you, I had never had a chance to be up close and personal with a horse before until I visited War Horse Creek. It was a very surreal experience for me. In the beginning, I was trying to get connected with the other female mustang, I can’t remember her name but was told that she is the oldest. However, she was not in the mood and was sort of stomping on the ground. I then moved on to another mustang named Trapper. He was pretty calm and cool with me. We started getting familiar with each other by the storage shed like others. We were able to bond fairly quickly.

As I was practicing rope-works with Trapper, he was very cooperative. Trapper caught on to what I wanted him to do very quickly compared to other mustangs that were working with other Veterans.

Transitioning back to civilian life is quite difficult for me, as things are not turning out the way I wanted them to be. However, working with Trapper and being able to command him to do what I wanted him to do gave me a sense of accomplishment as well as a joyful experience that I will never forget. I found the experience to be very therapeutic to me personally.

Thank you very much to War Horse Creek for such a wonderful experience of a lifetime. I look forward to visiting this peaceful land and working with Trapper again soon.

Hanson Tat, U.S. Military Veteran