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 Knowledge is Power
Posts: 4051
 
Location: wherever my daughter's running | Please take a few minutes to check out this Facebook page. If they are traveling through your area and you can provide a place to rest for the night or other assistance I know it would be greatly appreciated. This is not a scam. I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with them on the side of the road. Horse people take care of horse people and there are some great ones here. Thank you.
https://m.facebook.com/Thelongtrailhome
Edited by cruise 2014-05-27 1:15 PM
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boon
Posts: 4
| You're right...not a scam at all. Matt is my farrier's son, and what he is doing is amazing. He's been planning this ride for well over a year. Check out their FB page, share with your friends, and if you're so inclined, make a donation to Semper Fi -- it's for a wonderful cause. He has a big goal and every little bit helps! |
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 Big Trucks Ask Me
Posts: 1686
  
Location: Colorado | Bumping this up. He's doing a good thing here. He writes every day on his FB page. Gives some good insight to what our returning veterans are experiencing when they come back home. |
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Veteran
Posts: 231
Location: Nashvegas | Bump for a great cause. |
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Knowledge is Power
Posts: 4051
Location: wherever my daughter's running | Thank you for the bumps. If you have not seem today's post please check it out. Thanks to Eddie for really playing it forward. When you read Matt's posts and the comments you know what he is doing is something so very special for such a special cause. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 667
| Anyone care to translate for us non facebookers??
Thank you! :) |
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Knowledge is Power
Posts: 4051
Location: wherever my daughter's running | Here you go TNCowgirl88
http://www.wect.com/story/25407655/veteran-marine-rides-horse-across-country-for-wounded-warriors
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boon
Posts: 4
| Matt is riding a mustang from coast to coast to raise money for wounded veterans via Semper Fi. Matt served two tours of duties in Iraq, and has a fundraising goal of $7 million. For the non-Facebookers, here is one of Matt's posts from mid-May...his daily posts are written from the soul and wonderful reads, but this one in particular really touched me.
I'm lying in a hammock under a lean-to looking at a cloud covered moon and thinking about why I'm in South Carolina. I'm supposed to be here. This is where I was called to be tonite. It's not a hard life lying in a hammock with a southern wind cooling my face and listening to the horses graze. It's not hard to saddle a black mustang and ride in the rain. When it rains we get wet, when it's hot we sweat. These are just the things that are what they are. The things that are hard are seeing pictures of yourself and seeing a look in your eyes that wasn't there when you were a kid. Seeing the face of a young person who has seen too much for their years. That's hard. Closing your eyes and seeing images of your brothers bodies. That's hard. Going home and knowing no one around you sees these things and your left with them to haunt you alone is hard. Thunderstorms and riding an easy moving horse are not hard. I am in South Carolina and you are reading this because there are people who are having a hard time. If you're reading this and you've never experienced those things count your blessings that you don't. War is not glorious or glamorous. It's not what Hollywood tells us it is. Combat is feeling every human emotion in the span of an hour and feeling it to the maximum potential. It is heartbreaking and the most exhilarating thing on earth. You're never more alive than when you're about to die. You can taste the air and feel the electric nature of the atmosphere. You can feel the guys heartbeat on your left and right and it's addictive. It is the most powerful drug there's ever been and it owns you when you quit. You look for a replacement but there isn't one. There will never be a high like combat. How could there be? The difficult part is going home and missing everything that came with it and feeling like a freak for loving that twisted grotesque aspect of humanity. We feel shame for loving war because we hate war at the same time. How could it be acceptable to love such a brutal endeavor but we do. We love it and we miss it and we feel bad for all that came with it and many wish we never would've walked out of combat's embrace. That is where we lived. The trick is to live again, to find something that makes us feel like we're living. There's no joy in being alive, there's joy in living. Right now next to my horses, waiting on the rain, I'm not just alive. I'm living. Come rain or shine, hell or high water, tomorrow we ride. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 667
| VERY COOL. Thanks for sharing. |
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Knowledge is Power
Posts: 4051
Location: wherever my daughter's running | I posted this for a couple of reasons 1) to bring attention to what Matt is doing; 2) hoping some would donate; 3) hoping some would provide a layover place, and 4) I thought there maybe some that would like to follow this amazing journey.
I have seen so many miricles and wonderful things done by the people on this board out of concern and the goodness in their hearts. |
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Folks on-line