New Freedom Farm recently announced that one of its newly rescued horses had found a home at the facility in Buchanan.
U.S. Army veteran Sgt. Clint Cash worked with “Cole,” a rehabilitated horse since the equine arrived at the farm on Memorial Day last year. Harmony Farm Sanctuary, a vegan farm animal sanctuary specializing in the rescue and rehabilitation of farmed animals, rescued Cole from a cockfighting ring. When the horse first arrived on the farm, Cole had a fear of people and didn’t know how to receive love.
Cash served in the U.S. Army as a cavalry scout from 2009 to 2013. During that time, he served in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010. There, he served on a border patrol between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Cole is named after the USS Cole, a Navy-guided missile destroyer. On October 12, 2000, suicide terrorists exploded a small boat alongside the USS Cole as it was refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden. The blast ripped a 40-foot-wide hole near the waterline of the Cole, killing 17 American sailors and injuring many more.
“It’s appropriate that I picked up Cole on Memorial Day,” New Freedom Farms Director Lois Fritz said during the presentation last Saturday. “For those who don’t understand, studies have shown that interacting with a horse can be helpful and calming to those of us suffering from post-traumatic stress. It helps with isolation, communication trust, and social skills.”
New Freedom Farm’s mission of helping veterans facing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other conditions through interactions with equines made Cole and Cash’s connection the perfect place to bond. Both Cole and Cash faced struggles in the past, and those experiences gave them a level of understanding while forming their friendship.
Fritz officially presented Cole to Cash on Saturday, Jan. 8 as a surprise and an official New Freedom Farm coat that Cash earned through his hard work around the farm.
For more information about New Freedom Farm, visit the website at https://www.newfreedomfarm.org/.