Hometown Hero Outdoors
Welcome to the Hometown Hero Outdoors Podcast, where we’re more than just a show—we’re a mission. As a non-profit dedicated to enhancing mental health through life-changing outdoor adventures for military service members, veterans, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel, we bring you stories of resilience, healing, and community.
🌲 Why Listen?
- Over 5,000 heroes have experienced the healing power of the outdoors with us—through activities like hunting, fishing, camping, snowmobiling, and more.
- 85% of participants report reduced stress, increased camaraderie, and a renewed sense of purpose after our adventures.
- We share inspiring stories of mental health advocacy and people overcoming the toughest challenges, highlighting the profound impact of reconnecting with nature.
Whether you’re here for thrilling outdoor adventures, meaningful conversations about mental health, or to hear from real people who’ve used the outdoors to heal and grow, this podcast has something for everyone.
🎧 Subscribe now and join us on this journey of healing, resilience, and the transformative power of the great outdoors!
Hometown Hero Outdoors
Nature’s Healers - The Transformative Power of Horses: Sally Mixon with Abijah
Witness the incredible healing power of equine therapy as Sally Mixon from Abijah on the Backside shares her expertise in helping military personnel and first responders overcome PTSD, trauma, anxiety, and depression. Sally, a dedicated counselor and horse enthusiast, illustrates how retired racehorses can reflect human emotions, offering a unique means for individuals to confront their inner battles.
Experience the transformation of trauma recovery through collaborative wellness programs that fuse the benefits of nature and experiential healing. Our partnership with Sally’s nonprofit, Abijah, enriches our Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASSIST) program by integrating equine therapy and other outdoor experiences like ice baths and saunas. We also draw on the expertise of psychologist Brittany and retired Hennepin County deputy Mike Hendricks, creating a multi-layered support system that emphasizes mental well-being and recovery.
Stories of hope and resilience are at the heart of this episode, where we explore profound connections between horses and humans. From horses lying down in snow to mirror a person's inner turmoil, to the touching tale of a horse named Finn symbolizing personal challenges, these narratives showcase the extraordinary empathy of horses. Sally discusses the aspirations of the Abijah program and the ongoing development of a professional equine therapy team, inviting listeners to discover this unique therapeutic journey that promises healing and empowerment.
Produced by Phil Ewert Productions
Theme Music: Hero's Journey
Joel Loopez Tunepocket.com
Licensed by: Phil Ewert Productions
hometownherooutdoors.org
In the land of 10,000 lakes, a remarkable movement was born. Welcome to Hometown Hero Outdoors. We are dedicated to honoring our military service members, veterans and first responders by providing them with unforgettable outdoor recreational opportunities. We believe those who have served and sacrificed so much for our country and communities deserve a chance to reclaim their spirit and find healing in the great outdoors. This is Hometown Hero Outdoors. Welcome to the Hometown Hero Outdoors Podcast.
Speaker 2:Here is your host, chris Tatro. I have watched that video hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times and it gives me goosebumps every time. Still, I love it. I love it. So for our listeners. Today we have a guest on named Sally Mixon. She's with Abijah on the backside. She is a good friend of mine. We've been working together here for about half a year with Abijah on the backside. She is a good friend of mine. We've been working together here for about half a year and our relationship between the nonprofits and our friendship has grown. I'm excited to have her on. I know we've had a couple of misses with trying to catch each other here, but life happens, things are busy. But I just want to introduce everyone to Sally Mixon. Sally, welcome to the show, and just want to introduce yourself to the listeners and who you are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks, chris. So yeah, I'm Sally Mixon. I run a organization called Abages on the backside, and so we simply put, we incorporate retired racehorses to work with our military and first responders struggling with PTSD, trauma, anxiety, depression all of the above you know, etc. Depression all of the above you know, etc. So I'm a counselor, um, as well as um a horse person. I I exercise racehorses at racetracks and just love the racing industry, so I wanted to bring my two loves together, um.
Speaker 2:So here we are yeah, as I say so, you truly got this. Let me say do what you love. You truly got that yes, that. We've got a friend sitting there next to you. Why don't we introduce your friend who's there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so this is Louie. He's my French bulldog. He's in a lot of sessions. He thinks the world revolves around him, which it totally does.
Speaker 2:I hear him grunting. I love it. He is a good dog.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's awesome, so he'll be here.
Speaker 2:He'll probably crawl on my lap occasionally. Support for the podcast. Yeah, oh my gosh Luke, that's awesome. Yeah, so you operate out of Canterbury Park during the summertime and then you have another stable you're at during the winter.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So explain to our listeners who is Canterbury Park.
Speaker 3:This is from Minnesota, so there are horse stables and racetracks all across the country, but Sally is specifically out of Minnesota at Canterbury yeah, so Canterbury Park is the um, the thoroughbred racetrack here in in Minnesota and they have been awesome and have opened up their doors and caught the vision of Avijas and said they'd love to be the first track um to really host this healing for our first responders and military. So the vision and hope is that we can take this across the country to different racetracks and that's been really exciting just to dream and to start conversations with other tracks.
Speaker 2:It's a great vision. You know, I've got to experience some of your your therapy sessions as well and you know, for me, horse has always been a little more intimidating for me. I'm not a horse person for the most part, but I think that you kind of tip those scales a little bit, which is good. But uh, when it comes to equine therapy, explain a little bit about what that process is, or you know what? What is the science behind that, what are the things that you've noticed? And we'll definitely go back and talk about who you are and your history a bit, but just give us a baseline of what equine therapy is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so horses are prey animals and first and foremost and I think a lot of times people forget that because of their size, and so they bring up a natural kind of vulnerability in us all because of their size, and so they bring up a natural kind of vulnerability in us all because of their size. They, because they're prey animals, they pick up on what's going on internally and they play that out externally. So it creates this really cool distance between kind of what we're struggling with, because often what we struggle with becomes our identity and we got to really create that distance to separate it and look at it externally. So an example might be you know, an officer comes to us really, really struggling with anxiety and there could be a horse that all of a sudden starts pacing right and just going back and forth and now you have this 1200 pound representation of what they're feeling internally. So it helps them put words to things. It's crazy powerful, really cool how it works.
Speaker 2:Helps them process what the horses are displaying or exhibiting. I guess, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so they become, for lack of a better word kind of characters in their story. Yeah, so they become, for lack of a better word kind of characters in their story. So you might have one that represents PTSD, one that represents, you know, emotions or sadness, one that represents self, and they actually play, play that part. It's so weird. One of my employees called a hippie shit the first time. She's Air Force veteran and she's like what is, what is this? And she's also a horse person, and so it's just, it's crazy, when you lean into it, what these horses will uncover in a really, you know, gentle, respectful way and begin that healing process.
Speaker 2:It's fantastic. And then the cool part too is that you know you're really giving these retired racehorses, uh, another identity. You know life after explain to the listeners a little bit about. You know what happens with the normal thoroughbred racehorse.
Speaker 3:You know, once they're done racing, what that normal process or is for that and then what you're able to provide yeah, so the racing industry has gotten, I mean, leaps and bounds ahead of where they've been when it comes to kind of the second career for these retired racehorses. What happens, though, is a lot of times, I mean, they're athletes, so they might go into hunter jumper, they might go into dressage or Western barrel racing, things like that, but a lot of times the horses that we use can't be ridden or have injuries that just don't allow them to be that kind of sport horse anymore, and so, with that, their value really goes down in the industry. So we have one who, I mean, cannot be ridden, she can't carry weight, a crazy, amazing athlete, and then, from a horse perspective, her value went from, you know, thousands upon thousands of dollars to zero overnight, because she slipped on ice and broke her pelvis. So what do you do with a horse like that? Right, and so now she's saving lives, so her value, I mean, has gone up, right.
Speaker 3:In my opinion, it's just not monetary, but that doesn't opinion, it's just not monetary, but that doesn't that this is way more worth more, all of that. So, so that can be really, really powerful as well, with first responders, military who maybe are shifting right, who maybe are coming out of the military or changing jobs, transitioning, and what is their value outside of the uniform now? What do they do with that? Who are they and what is their value outside of the uniform now, what do they do with that? Who are they, what's their identity, all of those things. So it's a really cool parallel between these racehorses, retired racehorses, and the population we serve.
Speaker 2:A lot of people do struggle as they transition out of those careers. I was actually writing a blog article yesterday about the top five things that our military service members yesterday, about the top five things that our military service members, veterans and first responders uh encounter when they uh the top issues that when they transition out of light that career field, what are the things that are the most influentially, um, mentally, to them in a negative way? And that transition piece is huge, you know, and to be able to correlate those two definitely makes um make some light bulbs go on, because you can see that you know, if these horses are capable of doing that and helping me, then I am capable of doing that on my own. And that was not my identity. It was a big piece of my life and everything you know and, um, being able to move on to the next chapter is huge, yeah totally so for the listeners too.
Speaker 2:I just want to let everyone know too. So, hometown, here outdoors, you know this past legislative session that we had this past winter that went from 2023 to 2024 we began to look at a deeper way of being able to help give back to our people that we serve the military service members, veterans and first responders. We went to the legislature asking for some monies and able to increase our programs and help in a deeper way Excuse me and one of those things that we wanted to do was to find other nonprofits or people that we could trust and, I'll be honest, our circles are tight when it comes to working with others. At times, we can be open to working with others, but there's a lot of trust that needs to be established. There have been times in the past where we have worked with others and we've been taken advantage of and a lot of our contacts that we help provide and network with people end up. It gets to be a little temperamental and people throw elbows unfortunately, you know, because we're all trying to do the right thing and help the right people and, unfortunately, at times, you do get burned. So when we started looking around for other individuals to help. We wanted to bolster our assist program, which is the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, which we've talked about in previous podcasts and all over social media. Who can we give a deeper level of service to and leverage who can give that?
Speaker 2:So we had previously met with Sally, many, many years ago and, unbeknownst to us, you know, our paths crossed again and Sally had started with Abayaz and her own nonprofit and we began to have conversations about. You know, if we do get this legislative money, you know we can use our assist training in order to bolster and help our peers that need the assistance. But what do we do after that? And that's where we started talking to Sally. You know that was a way for us to be able to make this connection with those we serve with, be able to get them off that ledge, get them out of that crisis. But then where's the follow-up care come in, and that's where Sally came in.
Speaker 2:So our referrals to Sally is to assist our peers in a further, deeper way. She has the training, she has the experience, she has a method. I'm just a guy that's trying to help all people with our volunteers and get them here to be fighting tomorrow, and Sally's able to help take those next steps beyond what we are capable of. So we're really excited to get to meet Sally and we've done a handful of different things with you, you know, and it's been a little slower for us and being able to be at these, but you know, we started to implement health and wellness days with Sally and also Brittany Miss Quick, who's with wellness that fits.
Speaker 2:She's a psychologist who actually has a PhD in suicidology, which is absolutely amazing, but she's been doing this her whole life. So we've kind of formed a pretty cool little team here, with Mike Hendricks and everyone a retired Hennepin County deputy and being able to provide an outlet for other individuals who've been through something traumatic. Maybe it's a department that went through a shooting, or they lost a close loved one, or maybe they lost one of their peers on a call. So we're helping provide outlets and different options to them and let them know that there are people here, there are nonprofits here, that are here to help you, and I thought they've been pretty successful for the most part.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I think they've been really, really, really cool. We've gotten great feedback. I think what's so cool with the partnership with y'all is, you know, hometown Hero Outdoors is it's outdoors, right, like it's all about that and getting into the landscape and the beauty of nature and all of that. And so this model is so cool because we're outdoors, right Horses are typically, and so it's a really cool fit in that sense. But also experientially, what you guys do is all experiences. That's what it's based on and that also is a cool fit because, with trauma, trauma is an experience and we take in that experience through our senses as humans.
Speaker 3:That's how we're you know that's how we were created. So what we do in these wellness programs is create experiences to help your body kind of heal and release some of this trauma, and so that's been really cool, whether it's with horses, ice baths, saunas, right walks, like things that are outdoors and really engaging. So I think it's a win-win all around. We've had really good success right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, the way I kind of look at it too is, you know, we're, we're the peer program people that are here. You know, boots on the ground, we got people everywhere. We're able to reach out and put on adventures and trips, you know, and then if they reach out to us, we have some tools that'll help them get to tomorrow. We can go to you and you have your deeper stuff, and then we can go to Brittany too, who has her even deeper stuff. So it's just a little bit more of this structure and this tiered program where we're able to leverage each other.
Speaker 2:And you're absolutely correct with the outdoor stuff.
Speaker 2:You know we're able to, instead of just being on a couch and doing a therapy session, which does have its place. You know, there I've I've been through those and you know, I think everyone's experiences are different, but everything has its own place. You know, with britney and what she can do and what you can do with the hands on, with the horses, and what we can do with getting people out and be able to reconnect with people who are like-minded and be able to release. But it all plays, plays well, and it's, it's a, it's a puzzle, you know, in a way, and we're just helping put those pieces back together. And you did mention something that's pretty cool, you know. So we the health and wellness days with the saunas and the cold bath plunge actually just talked to a firefighter yesterday from Arizona, firefighter Fenton, and he does cold bath plunges now every day and he said that my mental state is so much better and my mood is better and everyone around me notices it, so it's pretty cool that we can implement that into what we do together.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thought it was like the dumbest thing I've ever heard not really, but I did it like this, you know, and I and it is, it's really cool. I just hate cold water. So I was like this is not like seriously, but I did it and I mean they're awesome, like I would do it again.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I think all the people from Sweden and Finland were onto something there, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were. They were. That's Louie backing up something, just FYI.
Speaker 2:That's all right, I get it. The animals here do it too. So one of the things I thought would be kind of cool in the future for us as we continue to do our programs together would be it would be pretty cool for us to find a mobile sauna that we could purchase and utilize together and use between the organizations and help be mobile. It may seem like something simple but in reality it's kind of cool and a lot of people don't.
Speaker 2:So as far as some of your sessions, I was able to get to one of them and I won't specifically say what it was, but there was a lot of trauma that recently occurred in a local department and I was able to experience the horses being put into the pen in the stable and watch them kind of work out everything and it was kind of it was a little intense for a little while there. You know my first. I remember looking at you and going, wow, I don't know what's going on here. One person even told me that the horses are freaking out. So you know, from your perspective and seeing that, you know when all those people walked in the room and the horses reacted that way and your experience, what was that reaction to you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, we see it happen a lot when, when trauma enters the room right.
Speaker 3:When there's a lot of that energy, they're going to pick up on it, and so they start running, they start running, bucking, you know, doing all those things, and that's what they do in the wild. So when there's trauma that they face in the wild, they run it off. They literally shake it off, and whether it's a wolf or you know, but when they get away they continue to run, and so we see that a lot. And so when you know, when you had 20, some people that had just experienced something pretty horrific come into this space. Obviously we're always navigating, monitoring safety that's part of what we do. Um, but letting those horses kind of show them externally what's going on and they're able to see that, you know, that process being ran out, and so, um, I mean that that's what they, in my mind you know that's what they were doing, were doing is releasing a lot of that trauma.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and over time, you know, I remember watching people walk around out there and then being able to engage with the horses and having these massive horses come up into your face is intimidating.
Speaker 2:I remember, even for me, you know, I I'd been going through some stuff at the same time and what was the really big horse's name?
Speaker 2:Again, finn, finn, yeah, finn, coming and getting right in my face and like I think he was even like, had his nose in my beard and started chewing on it a minute and then, and like I I started to like reflect, like what is this? And uh, you know, I remember thinking and talking to you about that, like I had this big mountain in front of my face that I'm trying to climb, you know, and it was, it was this huge object and at that point it was thin. Uh, kind of reflecting that, and he snorted in my face a couple of times and he walked away and then he went to the next person and to me it just kind of spoke to me that like okay, to the next person and to me it just kind of spoke to me that like, okay, there's a big object in my face but it went away, right, you know, like so being able to translate that to my personal life is saying things are gonna get better.
Speaker 3:that went away, yeah, yeah, well, and I, when you're saying that I think it was, I think finn was with, it was rocket, because I remember I asked you, I said what is big and black standing in front of you? Because, cause he was dark, I remember like so and and that's externalizing it right Like yeah, we can say it's this black horse, but like well, no, when we really step into our story, what is this big thing that's dark, that is blocking our view, like we're not able to see anything else and we have to, we have to go around it, under it, over it, over it, whatever, but it's also very difficult to move right um, and so, as we kind of started processing and talking, that's when, you know, some things came to light for you.
Speaker 3:So that's, yeah, that's how it works maybe it was locket now, I think about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, he's big, yeah, he is big and I've never been a horse person, but it was, it was. I mean I'm glad I did it, you know, I'm glad I got in there and, um, I think that I shouldn't say fear, but just that that stigma that I've always had being around horses kind of washed away a little bit being in there very cool one of the things that I noticed, too, was the mirrors that were in there and the horses looking in the mirrors. Do you want to talk about that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so you know these are things we don't plan for, they're just things that happen in session. And so a lot of people noticed that there were mirrors and different horses were stopping and looking at that, and I know one officer in particular said that, like what with this horse? What this horse represented to him. He said I have never been okay to just look at myself in the mirror again since this ordeal happened and like how do I do that? How do I move on? How do I be able to really look at who I am? So even that idea of mirrors, reflection, what's being reflected back to you, all of those things become part of the story, and that happens like in every session. In that particular session, the mirrors played a really big part in it. There's other sessions where eagles fly in and they become really big parts of the session.
Speaker 3:I've been in sessions where coyotes come in and they've been really big parts of a session. So like it just depends on where we're at location, where we're working, all of those things, but externally anything can become part of that session for that individual or that group.
Speaker 2:Very sensory. Yeah, very sensory or that group Very sensory, yeah, very sensory. I know you've given me a couple of examples and I don't know if you can talk to them, but high level. But you had one with someone where a bunch of horses laid down. Are we able to talk about that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that was a. That was. This was quite a long time ago when I first started Abijah's and it was just one of these sessions that was so bizarre. So this individual stepped into the space and we had seven horses, I think, in that space at the time and I didn't know this person was pretty closed off. I didn't know a lot of detail about you know what they were really struggling with. I knew there was struggle with some depression and some other anxieties and things. They stepped into the space and it wasn't like at a certain time of day where, like this herd of horses would typically lay down Right, and so all of a sudden one of them laid down and then another one, and then another one and another one, and pretty soon all seven of them were laying down.
Speaker 3:It's like what in the world? It's snowing out, right, they're laying in the snow. This individual walked back over to me and they said, well, how do they, how do they know? And they began, their eyes kind of began to tear up and I said, well, how do they know what? And they said well, I almost didn't get up this morning, I almost just threw in the towel this morning, and then the tears came.
Speaker 3:And so all of these horses somehow were picking up on this story of this individual who almost took their life that the morning of. And so, as that was being processed, they said, well, I got to learn how to get up out of bed, like I got to learn how to continue to stand up, how to continue to walk forward. And so they began to literally go over and push and shove each horse back up. That's so cool Cause that, from that point on, I mean that's an experience, like to get seven horses to stand back up. I mean that's a lot of weight having all that. All that it symbolizes is big. So that was. I mean that's that was cool. That was a really cool session that's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the, like you said, sensory and just the feelings and um, understanding, like it feels like they can almost see your soul, yeah, in a way, and they know exactly what you're going through and they they have like a sympathetic remorse yeah, to them, I guess. Absolutely incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're so cool.
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Speaker 2:RelentlessDefendercom. I think there was another one too that you told me about, where there was a person who had some severe PTSD, that they were handling and the horses were running and charging and stopping in front of her.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that was one, where the one that was identified as PTSD the horse.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the horse came running at this cop and again, safety is huge right, and so we know these horses were always going to step in all of those types of things if needed. And right before I was about to step in, this individual screamed F? You at the top of their lungs at trauma, right at PTSD. And this massive representation of that stopped, like floored it or like like came to a skid basically a skid stop and walked up, smelled their shoes and lay down at their feet.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And so like talk about one in adrenaline, but also the huge representation of what trauma feels like for a lot of people, like they can't control it, they can't move it, they can't stop it. I mean, it's just it's controlling them. And this was all of a sudden, the tables turned yeah and they stood up to it and they were able.
Speaker 3:This thing submitted to them and I mean it was crazy cool. We just had, um, we just had somebody who was saying it was their first time out and they were saying how they just don't deserve to be here and you mean at the session, or just yeah, okay and and like. Like they're not.
Speaker 2:They're not bad enough right, like what's a pretty big mentality for a lot of people in this career totally like you know, I don't.
Speaker 3:I just I feel like somebody else should, should have this someone's worse than off than I am. Yeah, yes, all of that. So they're they're saying this and we have one of our. They were in stalls at the time and he reached over, uh, the the stall gate and he grabbed their belt and he pulled them in.
Speaker 2:No kidding.
Speaker 3:Swear to God.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, you're supposed to be here.
Speaker 3:It was like okay, I guess I'm here, like you can't fight this. It's this. This particular horse is about 1500 pounds, like what. Are't fight this. It's this. This particular horse is about 1500 pounds, like what are you going to? Do. And then he put his head over his back and just pulled him in. And this was, I mean, a big dude, you know, six foot something. Um, it was. It was really cool. The horse was just like no, you're supposed to be here.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Yeah, that's so cool. It's just amazing. It's incredible. You know it's, and this is a whole world that a lot of people don't know about. You know, and I think it's absolutely amazing that you're doing these things and, uh, it's sharing the experiences like this and showing people like what representation of how they're acting really means to some people. There was something else that I thought was very interesting when we were at that session and there's two horses that were next to each other, a male and a female, and how you kind of explained that to me with somebody else's session was very interesting. You know, I think it was the male horse was hovering with the female horse pretty heavily. Do you want to give any more background on that at all? And, like some of the experienced people have thought about that, yeah, I mean every single person, because we're all different.
Speaker 3:They're going to interpret that differently based on their story, right? So if there's 100 people, there's going to be 100 different interpretations of it, because it's going to fit their story. For one in one particular officer, when I was processing some stuff with them, it was an idea of protection and protecting the other one, stepping in front right, taking the bullet, those types of things, right. For another one it could be, you know, they can't get away. Maybe one of the horses just can't get away from the other. And what can't we get away from? And that could be anxiety, depression, right, all of those things. So it could be just a gamut of whatever they're. However they're interpreting it, it's going to be part of their story.
Speaker 2:Right? No, it's going to be part of their story, Right? No, that's so cool. So what's the future look like for Abijah? I know you got a lot of moving parts and pieces.
Speaker 3:I mean right now we're in some conversations with Santa Anita and Gulf Stream, so Santa Anita racetracks out in California Gulf.
Speaker 4:Streams in Florida.
Speaker 3:And so you know, talking about what this could look like, how do we replicate it to really bring this across the country? Yeah, I mean it's. It's definitely has to be a calling, not a job, because it can be really tiring. And, as you know, chris, I mean it's definitely a calling. I know my dad I don't, I don't think I shared this, but my dad's a Marine and my twin brothers were both cops, and so it is. It is personal, it's what we want to do and continue to grow and build, and so it's exciting, it's really exciting to see how this is going to evolve, and the success we've had here at Canterbury has been amazing. We want to continue to grow that and build that and legislatively, you know, get more and more funding and help, you know everybody. So we'll see, we'll see, we'll see. I mean I love that hometown hero is is national Cause, it's just kind of that. That could be really cool too To see where we end up. And then you know, england has some really cool tracks too. Maybe we'll head over there someday.
Speaker 2:Oh, that'd be cool.
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 2:That'd be super cool. Nah, I need to get down to Canterbury and I've never been to the horse races and I know we were supposed to do an event here early september and that went to the wayside. People busy, things happen. But I do need to get down to the racetrack sometime and check this stuff out. Yeah, I've never been to a horse race in my life well, and horse racing.
Speaker 3:People ask me all the time like why horse racing? And how does that even fit in? And horse racing at the core, when it's done? Well, and when it got really big here in in US, it was around the Great Depression. And it was so big around the Great Depression because everybody had hope. At a racetrack, everyone at that time felt like an underdog, right, there wasn't hope. And so they'd go to a racetrack and realize, well, the underdog always has a chance, always has a shot. If you can get in the starting gate, you always have a chance. And so there was this beautiful parallel of hope. Um, and, and that's what racing is all about, so I love going to the races and we had a 60 to one shot in my bar in that one. Uh, and it was. So we were like, oh my god, we were screaming, like we couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2:So there's always hope, always a chance I watched kentucky derby for the first time this year too yeah, I know I yelled at you for that the first time, like come on, yeah and I was like I watched all the hype getting lit up to it and then I watched the race and I was like that's it, we're done we're done.
Speaker 3:Two minutes it was so cool though?
Speaker 2:yeah, no, it's. Do you know a little bit about the history, about you know people in the Kentucky Derby or just races in general, and how they dress up?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't really know, to be honest, I don't really know the whole, like fashion stuff, like I mean I'm just, I mean I know it, the racing always came from kind of like it came from europe, and so it was very like queen right, very like extravagant and, um, the common folk were in the infield, right, that kind of a thing. So there's definitely history there. I mean, when I watch racing I know like the background of each horse and their pet. You know their sire and their. You'm.
Speaker 3:I'm a nerd, so when it comes to like hats, I don't really care. I'm like if I have to wear one, that's fine, but I'd rather have boots on.
Speaker 2:No, that's cool. So the the uh in the infancy of Abijah. You know when you um, we're doing this elsewhere. And then you started Abijah. How did you get to the name of Abijah?
Speaker 3:What was the history there and what's the significance there? So Abijah was my first own horse. I grew up riding and then as a little girl and then would ride horses off the auction for people and just did a number of things kind of across the country with horses, but I never had my very own, and so I saw Bajia and my faith is really a big part of who I am. And so as a little girl I remember I was in church and I called my dad, pa, and I was like he looked at me, he's like Sally, you got to shut up, like I was just being that obnoxious little kid and so I just started reading the Bible, cause I'm like what the hell am I supposed to do here in church? I'm so bored.
Speaker 3:And I opened up revelation 1911, and that's the title, is revelation or is the rider on the white horse? And so I was hooked as a little girl. I'm like wait, he comes back on like a horse, like he's a warrior and all that kind of all that kind of stuff. And again, family of origin is military. So our dinners consisted of, like I don't know, conversation around the battle of the bulge was like Thanksgiving talk, right, like. So growing up in that. So I saw this horse when I was probably early, early 30 or late 20s and I ended up getting her and she. Horses have always reminded me of God. Like they're graceful, they're huge, they want a relationship with you, and so I named her Abijah, which means the Lord is my father. She is just a badass, beautiful, amazing girl, and she ended up passing away this past October. Um, but she was. She's, the greatest thing ever, so that's where the name comes from.
Speaker 2:Oh well, that's cool that you get to honor the horse and have that follow up and it's a good story. Yeah, that's cool, that is super cool. So, and then the other thing too is with our partnerships and stuff. I know that we intend to do some more down the road, but with the health and wellness days, you know, just for anyone who may be listening, if you're interested, you know and this could be for anyone who might be on the military side or first responder side that if you're in the state of Minnesota or local to us, you know, even if you're out of state, we'll try and figure something out because we have some teams there.
Speaker 2:Obviously, traveling with a lot of horses might be a little harder, but we'll figure something out. But reach out to us, we'll figure it out. Yeah, and we can plan a day to go through some stuff. And I know the most recent one you guys tailored a little bit more I was out that Sally likes to use as well, and we introduce people to HHO and Brittany and give people resources is really the thing and just being open and talking about the things that we've been through.
Speaker 3:Yeah, creating a space of humanity right, where we can all be we're all messed up, we're all human and there's beauty in that too and just creating that space of safety where we can struggle and learn how to struggle well and come together. And I mean, I tell everybody you'll never meet a counselor that's not messed up, like there's a reason we do what we do, like it's not. It's not because we know how to fix or help or cure it. We get it and so it's just coming alongside people.
Speaker 2:And maybe you've been through something that you know triggered you to go. I want to make sure I can help people with that, because I've been through that and that's part of me too, you know, and what I've been through, and wanting to help others and taking that armor off and letting people know that it's okay to be vulnerable a little bit yeah, off and letting people know that it's okay to be vulnerable a little bit, yeah. So talk about the system that you've been trained in with, you know, your counselor therapy and then also with the horse side. I know there was a certain term you used about what that model looks like yeah, so when?
Speaker 3:when counselors? So you go through school and you get your master's in counseling minimum right and then you can go on and be crazy smart like britney and get her phd and suicidology.
Speaker 3:But not yeah, she's crazy, cool and brilliant totally but with um, with counseling, just kind of in general, you get your master's but then you want to, you know, possibly kind of hone in on a type of model right, whether that's cbt cognitive behavioral therapy or emdr CBT, cognitive Behavioral Therapy or EMDR and so this model is called ARCH, a-r-c-h and it's called or stands for Arenas for Change, and so kind of coming into your arena right, coming into your story.
Speaker 3:So everybody at Abijas is certified or trained up in this model and also culturally trained. So that's a huge part of what we do If we're going to work with first responders, military, culturally, a lot of my team is from family, you know, from military, military themselves or from first responder families, and that's a big part too. We want to be able to relate as best as we can to the individuals coming our way. So all of them are certified in ARCH and then ongoing continuing education, so always learning, always growing, recognizing. We're not the expert, you know, we strive to do the best. The standard super high, but the standard always continues to get higher and higher and higher right, because we don't know what we don't know, always continues to get higher and higher and higher right Because we don't know what we don't know, and that's the cool thing about this model and, I think, understanding their strength and not knowing if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Totally yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's really the culture of who we are and you know, continuing to learn and grow along with you guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and talk about your team a bit. Who's all on your team, and do they have different things that they do specialize in, or does everyone kind of one shoe fits all? I'm guessing not.
Speaker 3:No, so there's always, typically there's always a mental health professional and a horse specialist or equine specialist on each session. And so you know, obviously the mental health person has their schooling, their education, their certifications right that they bring into the session, and then the equine specialist also has their trainings and their schoolings that they bring into the session. So they're both looking at. You know, es is the equine specialist is really looking at safety a lot of times, but they're still, they can still ask mental health questions, external questions, right, and then the mental health person's really looking at the emotional safety of it.
Speaker 3:So our team I mean, like I said, we have one that's Air Force, a retired Air Force, me we have one that you know married to a firefighter, you know things like that. So really wanting to to tap into that culture piece and have people that really get it and understand it, and if they don't, we send them to cultural training and things like that. So I like we work with one of the local fire departments and I don't see anybody from that department in session because I'm their point person, so I go to their training.
Speaker 3:So a lot of times I'm like the dummy in the car they have to like you know, that's been a rule, or I've gone into live birds or climb the ladder like just to be in there. Yeah, and so then when shit hits the fan, they're not just calling a counselor they don't know, they're calling Sal. There's a relationship there.
Speaker 2:There's a humanized aspect. Right yeah, that's fantastic. This is your financial cop money minute.
Speaker 4:Nothing starts with a plan. Unless you have a budget, you can't pay off debt, just like you can't really technically save for retirement and a vacation and other things without understanding what your budget is. And so I had to get a grasp of what my outflow versus my inflow was, and I kind of came to a realization that you know, we have this gift in law enforcement called overtime right, and far too many of us use overtime as a mechanism to elevate our standard of living. Well, I changed and said you know what we're going to use overtime to build our financial strength, and I'm going to use it to accelerate things.
Speaker 2:This is your financial cop Money Minute. Well, that's cool. So if people want to learn more about you or potentially reach out about sessions, or even want to volunteer for help like what are those? Let's start with volunteering. Like if you take volunteers, if there's opportunities to volunteer, what does that look like?
Speaker 3:so at the racetrack it's been a little tricky because you have to be licensed to even get back into the racetrack right into the stable area. Um, but this year, you know, we know we're when we're in our winter months. Yes, there's much more volunteering that can. That can take place, and people can reach out to me just directly with my email. What's that?
Speaker 2:What's your email.
Speaker 3:It's long.
Speaker 2:We'll make. We'll make a note on the podcast episode, but say it out loud.
Speaker 3:We're changing it because I'm an idiot, but it's sallyatabijas on the backsidecom.
Speaker 2:Hey, mine is christatro at hometownherooutdoorsorg, so I get along.
Speaker 3:Okay, good, all right, that's good, that's good. Yeah, I don't feel so bad.
Speaker 2:I need a short nurse. It should just be sally at abijahscom.
Speaker 3:yeah, I know mine should be chris at hhocom org. Yeah, yeah I get it so that's social media website yeah, our website is abijahscom, um, and so you can look that up. It's a. You want me to spell it because?
Speaker 2:yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:A as in apple, b as in boy. I-j-a-h-scom.
Speaker 2:Dot com Perfect, that's great. So then, volunteering opportunities, maybe at the stable throughout the winter, they can do some things. Or even if people are interested in sessions or they can reach out or health and wellness days, they can reach out to you myself. The organization here, brittany I'm going to have Brittany on another podcast at some point, since she has a unique education.
Speaker 3:She is huge. Yeah, my, my battery's about to die, so hold on.
Speaker 2:You're good, no worries. So if you guys want to reach out to Sally at any point in time, you can reach out to us. You can reach out to her, her website, her social media presence as well, and be able to maybe make contact and see if there's any opportunities for someone that you may know. There's a different avenue for everyone when it comes to their healing and their journey, and this is one of the avenues and it's very unique and different. So, even if you are intimidated by horses like myself, it's okay to go try it. Uh, you're with trained professionals that know what they're doing and it's just interesting to be able to navigate those feelings that you have and see it played out in different horses that are there, and and it's uh, it's very cool. It's very cool and I think it changes a lot of people's lives.
Speaker 3:Thanks, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, thank you for coming on the podcast. Sally, Thanks for having me. We'll get together soon. I'm sure we'll see plenty of each other coming up with the next legislative out at the Capitol.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that'll be fun.
Speaker 2:Yes, Well, it's a budget year, so fingers crossed right.
Speaker 3:I know, fingers crossed, it'll happen, it'll happen.
Speaker 2:Well, everyone, I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. You know, even if you are unable to get to Minnesota to do some equine therapy with Sally and her team, there are a lot of different places across the country and hopefully in the future we will see Sally in Abijah, in different states, but definitely look into it. It is an awesome option and thank you for listening and we will see you on the next hometown hero course podcast. Thank you.
Speaker 1:The hometown hero outdoors podcast is made possible by the following sponsors O'Neill Electric Contractors. The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. Relentless Defender, apparel and Financial Cop Financial Advisors. Thank you for listening to the Hometown Hero Outdoors Podcast. For more information, visit our website at hometownherooutdoorsorg.
