Heroes And Horses 2021 Season Recap And Reflections
A NOTE FROM OUR CEO & FOUNDER, MICAH FINK
Greetings Friends, Supporters, and Donors,
We have just wrapped up our 2021 season. I want to take some time to recap and share some thoughts as we move into the Fall here in Montana. This summer was truly like no other. For the first time, we operated on our ranch thanks to so many that made those first steps possible. This allowed us to place down roots and go from a mobile operation to a permanent one. To me, none of it matters if we are not changing lives, creating impact, and evolving. It's time we see through the absurdity of repeating the same processes, programs, and approaches and begin to think differently about what it takes to reveal the true nature of a human being. That change can only happen in the privacy of one’s own heart.
This year has been difficult and challenging as we took on a tremendous amount. Moving to a ranch with no infrastructure, adding new programming, new horses, and three new team members, all at once. During all these challenges, I could not be more thankful and humbled to have the opportunity to face them. As I laid in my tent for over 100 days this season after each Maxim lab, I would often deeply consider the human condition. Daily I heard voices filled with pain, regret, hurt, loss, brokenness, and sorrow, the sense was crystal clear that there must be something more than just surviving and existing through life. How can a person find solace and sovereignty in the face of experience that has been shaped by such pressure, immense hardship, bad choices, chemical manipulation, digital stimulation, and very sophisticated programming that teaches you to kill?
When students arrive at Heroes and Horses they stand at the threshold of the ending of an era in their lives. A simple opportunity to learn about who they are aside from past experience alone. A journey most will never take because of the difficulty of the task. Over 41 days, they take on the longest, most arduous, comprehensive, and innovative program for Veterans in existence today. More importantly, they have decided to challenge themselves to grow. When the old ways fail and repeat answers produce the same results, it's time to take charge of change. To their credit and contrary to the narrative, they embrace the challenge and rise to the occasion. The wild horses, remote mountains, workout routines, morning meditations, daily cold plunges, Maxim lab, zero-sugar whole food plan, and sweat lodge are simple tools. Tools that reveal where they are in their current lives and help them heal in mind, body, and spirit by strengthening the connection with themselves and their true authentic purpose. It's the self-work after self-knowing that creates profound change.
When a student applies to Heroes and Horses they come originally looking for answers from us. What can you tell me to make it better? What ideas can I attach to for temporary reprieve? What can you tell me to get me to where I should be? I just smile because I have no idea, but what I do know is intrinsically you already know all the answers, but you're searching the wrong way. Over 41 days, you will realize that the answers that you were searching for, you had all along but had yet to recognize.
As I laid looking at the stillness of the Montana sky each night, I could so clearly see we all are already gifted with the ability to find grace, peace, purpose, and meaning and the answers to life's hardest questions and moments. We aren't who we think we are and in this experience, at Heroes and Horses, an individual discovers that, and that discovery changes you. The judgments and opinions of the mind are just judgments and opinions of the mind. We are born to be fulfilled, striving towards purpose. We are born to honor what is good while reaching for our highest self. However, somewhere along the way we get lost and become the victim of our experience. The experience then becomes our identity, by our own choice, and then we live out those choices and create the current life we have which can feel like a spinning top until it slowly falls over.
From war, trauma, hardship, and loss we become bonded to these experiences. I take my hat off to the warriors who have experienced the horrors and worst of mankind's behaviors at the sacrifice of their very existence in this short life. So how do we deconstruct what we have been taught and experienced? People spend a lifetime trying to make their identities better, but “experience” identities are not you. So, the greatest fight and most important one is the one you will fight for yourself. That is what Heroes and Horses is all about. Your life becomes your meditation, your focus, and there becomes no separation and a rewiring begins to happen. We are redefining the relationship between challenges and purpose and the intimate role these play in discovering our true selves. But it's always up to the individual, one has to do the work. There is no way around it. There are no shortcuts, no easy ways or quick fixes, just pure and simple one has to do it. Wake up and do. I am proud to stand next to these graduates who have done incredible work over this course to return home, after valiantly serving our Nation when we asked. We are investing in people, and by extension, their family, community, and country, in the most profound and life-changing way, shifting the very trajectory of their lives and all they touch.
Here are a few thoughts from the 2021 season:
1. Not being afraid to change and let go of “experiences” identification.
2. Being remarkable at unremarkable things.
3. Discipline. You have to do it, or nothing will work.
4. Be the change, embody the change.
5. Failing is fine…falling is fine, as long as you don't stay where you have failed or fallen.
6. Do the work. The easy way kills you every time.
7. Honor yourself…your body, mind, and spirit. These are not separate, but interconnected aspects of you. Honor and work on these relationships.
8. Let go of all judgment and forgive yourself. Let go of resentment, it only hurts you.
9. Remove people who are holding you back or elevate them to change.
10. Turn your pain into power
11. Pills, TV, the internet, junk food, booze, drugs, or the never-ending onslaught of other people's ideas don’t change your life.
So what is discovered here?
You change your own life…from within. It is always within, never outside. It's 100% in you. It's the still small voice some feel for the first time. The voice that we feel in our hearts when we're still, quiet, and just listening. Without judgment, without expectations, without experience... just being.
I am writing this at 4:45 AM. I have tears streaming down my face as I am proud and honored for the opportunity to be part of this incredible journey for me personally and the organization. It's special. It's powerful. It's a human development lab. But I want to say thank you with all my heart for investing in this process. These Veterans are people used by a system then thrown away into the dustbin of society with the wounds of war scarring them. With your support, you have provided them an opportunity to change their own lives. That change is exponential for them and all they have in their lives. This change changes the world.…the power of One.
Life is not here to punish us but is here to help us grow in wisdom and knowledge drawing from all experience and never again be a victim of life, but participants in it. Thank you for allowing me to share some thoughts from our 2021 season.
None of this would be possible without all the incredible support of each, and every, one of you. I am humbled and grateful that so many people care and place that intent into action. It shows the success of this organization. As we approach the Gala on October 23rd, I encourage you to make the journey. We will hear from students and see the impact firsthand. We are pleased to announce that Ryan Bingham will be performing on October 22nd at the Armory as a benefit. On the night of the Gala, we will auction off incredible items, but more importantly connect as friends, bonded by the single-molecule of wanting to help others and make the world a better place.
Lastly, we will be announcing the launch of our Capital Campaign to fully develop our ranch for future programs. We need your help to grow this organization and the time is now. If you believe in what we are doing, we are grateful for all your support now and in the future. Thank you for allowing us to expand and refine this center for human development, leaving a legacy that the world can see and strive to emulate. My name is Micah Fink and I have dedicated my life to the betterment of the human condition. Together we can.
Humbly,
- Micah Fink | Founder/CEO
