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Saving Sam

“Never give up on someone with a mental illness. When “I” is replaced by “we,” illness becomes wellness.” -Shannon L. Alder. It is very important to ensure those who feel this way, find comfort and happiness in something. Through the horses, we can make sure this can happen. Sam had always faced many mental health issues which resulted in her abusing substances and not being able to be herself. Her mental illness resulted in her life being changed drastically and she never could find true happiness in anything she would do.
   
A few years ago-after a bit of convincing- she decided to give the program a try. She came very scared and wasn't completely for it. But she faced through her fear and came anyways.
   
The first day she came; we went out to the field to caught a horse for her to work with. Due to her fear, she was hesitant to picking a horse and therefore, stayed away. Suddenly, a horse came out of the herd and picked her out. This special horse was JR and very quickly after they had a real bond.
   
The program was going extremely well, until this one program in. Sam had come to the program not sober. I always talk about how the horse always needs to do the talking and this is exactly what happened. I did not realized anything different about Sam that day, but JR sure did. He could inevitably sense it and therefore was not responding to her at all.
   
It wasn't until the next program that I found out from Sam, that there was something different about the last program. She explained how much of an impact the horse was having on her and how much of an impact she had on the horse.
   
This experience resulted in a strong connection and she still holds JR very close to her heart. JR was able to change her life and help her build it back up again. She was able to build up her self worth and self esteem, once again. All in all, JR saved her life.

Watch This: https://youtu.be/uucUWDrBCEc

 

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