H.O.O.V.E.S. in Swanton to welcome five wild horses from California
A group with the nonprofit’s “Mustang Task Force” will make the trip January 17th.
SWANTON, Ohio — H.O.O.V.E.S. is a program based in Swanton that specializes in helping veterans, and soon, they’ll be welcoming some additions.
“Well, to make an extremely long story short, there’s a mustang in this pasture right here that saved my life. And once I learned the power of gentling wild horses and what they can do for you, and just the power of horses and healing in general, I really wanted to dedicate my life to offer that to other people in need,” explained founder Amanda Held.
She says that both veterans and the horses benefit from the nonprofit’s programming.
“The mission of H.O.O.V.E.S. is to rescue horses who then rescue veterans, and we’ve been doing this since 2011 as a nonprofit,” Held said.
Held says the primary service offered by H.O.O.V.E.S. is a veterans retreat.
“We offer that to veterans nationwide, so we serve local veterans and we serve veterans from all over the country. But, one of the things that we’re going to add is a wild horse gentling program,” she said.
A group of H.O.O.V.E.S. volunteers will make the journey, in late January, to California. And as the group makes the cross-country trip, along the way they’ll make stops in various states to raise awareness about veterans’ mental health and mustang horses.
Held says this all stemmed from a Cllifornia film festival two weeks ago, where H.O.O.V.E.S. won an award.
“Josh Nagel helped us produce a film, and it was awarded the best horses for mental health video at the film festival, so that was really exciting. But while we were there, we toured a mustang gentling prison program,” explained Held.
According to Held, due to challenges in managing herds, more than 50,000 wild horses currently reside in holding facilities across the country, and another 50,000 are scheduled for round-up. More than 1.7 million veterans are receiving VA treatment for mental health challenges.
Her hope is that with the addition of these five mustangs, the organization will be able to slowly chip away at those numbers.
To find out more about the work happening at H.O.O.V.E.S., you can visit their website, hooves.us.
