Philip,
It was fun being on
the radio show tonight with you and the thousands of listeners. Attached
is information about me and my Wounded Human Project as well as the flyer and
Sponsor Brochure for the run. I am looking forward to being on the show on
Thursday evening about 6:30 pm. MDT
Also, 'like' my
pages and make me a friend so we can communicate on Facebook. Also as we
go forward we will be adding links to all of our pages and website: http://www.ironhorserun.org/
Please let me know
how I can post it on my Facebook pages so my 'herd' can listen and call
in.
If you have any
question regarding anything, please contact by one of the means
below.
Thanks,
Richard McMahan, MA, CACIII
Natural Humanship Training, Colorado
Therapy Horses
6127 West 16th
Street(office)
5206 West F Street(horses)
Greeley, CO 80634
The Wounded Human Project by The Colorado Therapy Horses
I am a Licensed Psychotherapist who has been in private
practice for 31 years. I began my career coaching high school and college
baseball when I needed a career change. In 1982 I started my career
counseling troubled adolescents. In 1988 I completed my graduate
degrees in Rehabilitation Counseling, Vocational Evaluation and Substance Abuse
counseling. I opened up Managed Adolescent Care in Fort
Collins, Colorado which was one of
the first day treatment centers in the US. This program employed 25
people and treated hundreds of clients and included the first 'public/private'
programs for the Thompson R2-J school district managing their Emotionally
Disturbed High School program.
In 1998 my wife, Judy, got interested in horses and we
purchased two. Soon after that I had a
sixteen year old, female client who presented ‘drastic’ acting out symptoms
culminating in two suicide attempts.
After digging deeper, I found out that she was totally powerless due to
a history of sibling incest. Growing up
this young lady was a ‘cowgirl’, spending much of her time riding her horse,
barrel racing, and pole bending in 4H, Gymkhana, and Little Britches. After witnessing how the horses we bought
empowered my wife, I decided to pay her horse trainer to give my young client
riding lessons in an ‘English Saddle’ where she had to basically learn how to
ride all over again because it wasn’t a big Western Saddle with a horn to hang
onto. This experiment was a miracle and
the rest is history. She got her
personal power back because of the horse!
After spending eighteen years working with troubled
adolescents and their families I decided to take on another challenge and open
a private practice in Greeley,
Colorado working with adults in
the criminal justice system. While working in this setting I continued to
realize that people struggle to change in the sterile environment of my
clinical office. In 2003 I continued to
perfect using horses as an object of change in therapy and developed Natural
Humanship Training. Each year starting
then I used this training method with clients on parole and probation.
This past January a friend of mine said I should tell my
secret to the World so he helped me set up a Facebook page. We called the page The Colorado Therapy
Horses and now it has over 2,450 fans.
In May I started sponsoring ‘Horses Healing the Human Heart’ events to
my fans on Facebook. This was extremely
successful and we are putting on one per month and will until the snow flies.
Many of the new friend at the events suggested we do
something for our Wounded Warriors. One
night as I was watching the News I heard a terrifying statistic that, “we are
loosing 23 Veterans/day to suicide attempts.
Because the horses are such a love creature and have helped other humans
with depression, anxiety and PTSD I started a campaign to reach out to our
heroes. On June 29th we
sponsored our first ‘Wounded Human Project’ event for Wounded Warriors and
their families. I was a fantastic
success and has taken me and the horses to another level of ‘Healing the Human
Heart’
Now that we have traction and the
program is expanding at a rate that is like a horse race I have to learn
something new………….., how to raise money and fund this project! Judy and I have
funded the horses helping people ourselves since we started in 2002 because the
‘System’ doesn’t recognize and pay for equine therapy. With your help we will overcome this
challenge!
Since May 2013 we have organized and
put on 10 free events for the Wounded Humans, Wounded Warriors, Weld county Drug Court
and various children and family groups.
The events have drawn 250 human participants. The remainder the scheduled events in August,
September and October will attract another 200 humans. As we move forward we will also give away the
horse experience to as many groups that come forth and want it. I have a meeting with DHS to present a
program for ‘Building Healthy Families the Horse Way and will be implementing
Continuing Education Trainings, ‘How to Understand and Manage a Herd of
Students’, for the Loveland
School District which
will be started in the fall of 2013. The program cost $41,141/month to run, which
Judy and me have funded it out of our life savings along with a meager amount
of donations from supporters. Because of
the drought in Northern Colorado and the high
cost of feed, we are no longer able to pay out of own pockets. Because the project is now taking off like a
rocket, we need help and what better community to help us than the patriots
that know the government is not the answer, that we are that a ‘herd’ of humans
is with the help of God.
Last year we hired a grant
writer to help us file the 501c(3) documents and research and write grants for
us. He started this project by filing
for the needed corporate filings with the State of Colorado, Tax ID number from the IRS and
wrote Articles of Incorporation, Bio Info for Human Interpersonal Services, and
Bylaws. He was paid for 8 months and
given an additional $800 to file with the IRS for our Determination Letter
Status. He also was researching and
writing grants to Private Funders that did not require a determination
letter. In January of 2013 I found out
that he did none of the above and worst of all did not send in the $800 and
file with the IRS for determination status.
He has sense skipped the state. I
have contacted an attorney and am proceeding with legal actions.
A month ago one of the ladies in the
‘herd’ of volunteers suggested that we have a Poker Run and get all the bikers
in Northern Colorado involved in helping us raise money so we can help the
Wounded Warriors and other humans suffering from PTSD, depression, anxiety and
other emotional conditions. I contacted
a friend who was a event organizer and the Iron Horse Poker Run & BBQ was
born.. Then I contact a friend of mine
in the oil industry and he is on board and will be contacting many companies to
be sponsors of the event. I have also
contacted Thomas in Cheyenne, who I hope will be able to organize a start to
the ride in Wyoming and run to Pierce where the Colorado ride from Milliken
with meet and then proceed to the horse in West Greeley where we will have a
BBQ and free concert with several bands donating their time. Also, this will be a family event and we are
planning to have activities at the farm for the kids to do. We have plenty of parking so grandma and
grandpa or spouses that don’t ride can drive the kids to the event and wait for
the ‘herd’ of Iron Horse to show up.
Attached is the PDF’s for the save
the date for the ride and a Sponsor Brochure in case you know anyone who wants
to sponsor our event.
Thanks,
Richard
McMahan, MA, CACIII
Natural
Humanship Training, Colorado
Therapy Horses
6127 West 16th Street(office)
5206 West F Street(horses)
Facebook
personal:
Email: richard@naturalhumanship.com
Skype:
richard.mcmahan2
970-302-5204
Greeley, CO
80634