Why Four Cowboys Rode Wild Horses 3,000 Miles Across America (Part 3) | Nat Geo Live

10 years ago we had um 6 8,000 horses a year being adopted out and that number has plummeted to about 2500 a year. Part of it's an awareness thing; part of it's people don't know horses. But I found one story um that really touched me.

After the unbranded ride, there was a veteran in Afghanistan, a Green Beret, who was shot in the chest and uh had a lot of difficulties with PTSD, um maybe a drinking problem, and was pretty depressed and just kind of down on life. He ended up getting involved in a program called Heroes and Horses, where they took Ray and for three weeks they taught him horsemanship and they took him on a pack trip. After that, he was like, "I'm going to do a 1,000-mile journey uh along the Continental Divide to try to kind of come to peace with uh some of the things that he'd gone through."

So there's Ray on the left, and there's Mink on the right. He's the guy who has Heroes and Horses. I love that man. Um, but uh, he was doing this journey and about two-thirds of the way through it, some of his horses started to colic, which is like a belly ache. He thinks they got into some invasive weeds. He called me and was like all distraught, "I don't know if I'm going to be able to finish," etc. etc. I was like, "Dude, I got some ponies; you just use my ponies," um under the situation and the condition that I get to go with you.

So I got to go on this really cool trip uh with Ray, and we went through Yellowstone. Here's some of the photos. Um, I got to go for I don't know, two weeks or so with him, but uh we made a short film with National Geographic Adventure on his story.

I served in the US Army for 11 years. I was in the 10th Special Forces Group. I did all my combat deployments to Afghanistan and been diagnosed with PTSD, pretty bad anxiety. For a long time, 8 n months, I didn't want to leave the house at all.

I went on a horse packing trip with an outfit called Heroes and Horses last year, and they take combat veterans to the mountains. I went on that trip and all of a sudden I found purpose, and it fundamentally changed my life. I'm trying to get to Manhattan, Montana and when I get there, I'm going to donate all my tack and all my ponies to Heroes and Horses. So I believe this program is amazing, and it's going to help a lot of veterans.

A friend of mine that I worked with in the back country who was also a veteran committed suicide about a month ago. So when I heard that Ray was riding 1,000 miles from Colorado to Montana along the Continental Divide to seek healing through horses in Wilderness, I asked to come along. I myself have completed two similar long-distance rides and feel a bond with Ray.

"Let's go through Yellowstone." Yeah, that's pretty cool! "Did so freaking cool, man! Hats off to that Buffalo for standing its ground!"

I've been carrying this rod and reel around since Colorado. I haven't caught one fish yet. "Yeah, this is absurd. Typically bad luck to catch a fish on the first cast." Nice, dude! "Here's five!" Holy crap!

"Here we go, here we go, here we go! Now we're talking Yellowstone Cutthroat trout!" Catching up Ray. "I just missed one!" R, I got one too! Nice! That was probably the fastest I've ever seen 15 fish get caught; that was pretty cool.

Part of the reason why I did this trip is for my buddy Clint, who uh just passed away two weeks ago and I wasn't able to go to his funeral. I thought, "You know, this is the perfect way to come out and honor our friendship, in the good times."

I think so too. So, to Clint, to all the guys that uh took their lives for reasons that we never understand.

The mules are just amazing creatures that give you lots of love and affection. A lot more than my May does. This is the first time I've been able to come up to him while he's been laying down without him standing up. This is so cool!

I'm going to try it in the other mule. "Hey buddy, hey buddy!" These ponies have—they absolutely trust me now. They agree, and uh that makes me feel really good. These ponies have an amazing ability: once you gain their trust, they care for you; they believe in you and they look for you for leadership.

When someone's looking for you for leadership, you can't fail them, and that's an amazing thing. You stop worrying about yourself.

I haven't learned anything new about myself on this trip; I just found things that I had once lost. It's really easy to get in a pattern of self-defeat, and I think that's where I was at. This challenge made me realize that there was nothing wrong with me.

Yeah, Ray's an awesome guy. Um, after this film was made, um Heroes and Horses has continued to expand the program. Ray last year was one of the trip leaders taking guys like him into the Wilderness, teaching them horsemanship. It's just kind of cool to see you know, dude that was really struggling and you know is now giving back to people.

Another thing about this program, this Heroes and Horses program, is in January, uh they adopted 15 Mustangs. Um, yeah, it's pretty cool. I kind of nudged him that way a little bit. I was like, "You know, you want some?" Because they thought about getting Canadian Mustangs. I was like, "What man, get some American Mustangs!"

So they went, they got all these Mustangs, and they trained them, and they're going to become therapy horses this summer for more guys going through the program. In order to complete their training, we're actually going to do a 500-mile ride through um New Mexico and Arizona just to prepare the horses and I'm going to get to go on part of that, which I'm really excited about.

I don't know if you guys noticed this or not, but I kind of like to ride horses in the mountains. But, it's really cool. Ray's story is one that I've heard from quite a few people. You know, people that are in a bad place in life or they don't have a lot of direction. They don't really know where to go and they kind of seek solace or they seek purpose and an adventure and an escape by, you know, going into nature, going into the wild and uh just stepping into some woods and going and finding a place to think about.

And um, you know, it changed Ray's life. It has completely changed my life, and I believe that, you know, ensuring that public lands have a place into the future you know, isn't just like crucial for biodiversity, for a lot of stuff, for a lot of the indigenous species in North America, but I mean for our society as well.

I think having a place where the average Joe can go and recreate and to think and to escape, um you know, it's part of what makes us human. So, you know, there's three points that I really wanted to send you guys home with. They made me drill it down to three but one of those is is public land.

You know, um, you know, there are people that legitimately want to sell it, and that is such a bad idea. I mean, it is one of the greatest things that the United States has ever done: to set aside lands for future generations. There are so many people that enjoy and appreciate those, and it changes their lives and gives them purpose.

I just think it's crazy that you would ever want to sell something like that. And then the second one is, you know, we have all these public lands, and what do we want to do with it? You know, it's a big question. People fight tooth and nail to keep them, but they're like, "Well, what is good land management? How do we define what good land management is?"

There are a lot of big environmental and ecological um time bombs, you know, in the American West and on the world as a whole. In my opinion, I feel like the longer you wait and procrastinate to tackle these issues, you know, head on, you know, just the bigger they're going to become.

And then the third one, and one that I really want you guys to go home with is you all need to adopt a burrow! Especially you, sister, you have no choice.

So that's the end of my talk. Thank you guys so much for coming.