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The planes and ships brought me back,
but my soul was left behind.
No words could cure.
No arms could comfort.
No loved one could help me heal.
Who I was had splintered away.
I was a memory almost forgotten.

 

I walked from hell looking home,
but I couldn't find the way.
No way back.
No way forward.
I was lost in the land of despair.
They wanted me to be who I was.
That person didn't live anymore.​​

Across the field not far away,
stood one who saw my wounds.
She did not speak.
She needed no words.
Yet she comforted my wounded soul.
She helped me see past the fear and the pain.
I found the path that led me home

Horses and Heroes:
An unscripted TV series, which promotes physical and emotional healing
.
 

Horses and Heroes is an unscripted TV series, which combines highly effective Peer Support Therapy with Equine Therapy. Unlike most in the genre, it will focus on healing and positive growth rather than endorsing bad behavior.  Each season will bring together veterans from WWII to the current conflicts. They will be sharing their challenges and supporting each other as they find new solutions to their physical and emotional challenges.  They know the talk because they have walked the walk.  They see the dodges and will be able to call each other on them.  Sparks may fly. Tempers may flare, especially when they force each other to face their ghosts.  But there will also be laughter and fun as they rebuild the comradery, which kept them safe and strong.  The snarkiness and practical jokes between the branches don't simply end. There is always room for just one more. This interaction will help them rebuild that sense of brother and sisterhood they depended on while serving, which will help them reclaim their civilian lives. When it airs, it will reach the homes of the veterans, who need to hear that they are not alone and give them information as well as the permission they need to also heal.  They will help each other find their way back to the world.  Veterans can’t go back and make a brand new start, but they can start from now and make a brand new end.

Horses and Heroes' store

Funds raised through this store will be used to produce the TV series Horses and Heroes as well as raise awareness of the healing benefits of equine therapy. By combining it with peer support therapy, the series will help veterans heal and move forward.

 

Unlike most crowdfunding campaigns, supporting our project benefits both yourself and the project.  You receive a high-quality shirt that is shipped directly from the manufacturer, which shows your support of veterans, while at the same time assisting our team in producing the series.   Please buy a shirt and share our information on your social networking sites with the request that others do the same.  Thank you in advance for your assistance in producing Horses and Heroes.  If you have any question, our contact information is at the top.

Store link

 

 

 

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If you would like to support our efforts to produce the series may use the donation button.  We are a for-profit business.

Qualifications for the Cast

The casting of the veterans is extremely important. They can make or break the series. Therefore we will be extremely cautious with each season's cast, but the first is particularly important. Each season of Horses and Heroes will host eight veterans, who will be representative of all veterans. Thus, the cast will be based on diversity and inclusivity for gender, age, sexual orientation and branches of the military. For these reasons, we will be excluding those who propagate religious and political extremism. Horses and Heroes is solely about helping veterans heal and reclaim their lives. Too many have used them as disposable parts of the war machine or as political footballs to further their agendas. Veterans are people. Pure and simple. Horses and Heroes' goal is to empower them to reclaim their lives by helping the face down their ghosts. They can't go back and make a brand new start, but they can start from now and make a brand new end. Horses and Heroes will help the eight cast members and the veterans, who watch the series, write a new end for rest of their lives.

 

 

Qualifications:

 

Honorably discharged and must provide a redacted DD214

Want to openly and honestly deal with physical and emotional core issues

Being willing to verbalize their feelings

Support the other veterans in an honest and compassionate way

Physically able to work with the horses

Able to show respect for the horses

 

To be considered for the cast leave comment, including why you want want to be part of the series.

 

Cross-branding Partnership

Horses and Heroes is an unscripted TV series, which promotes healing rather than bad behavior. Although Equine Therapy will be the stage, the focus will remain on the veterans and how their lives, as well as those of their families, were changed by the physical and emotional challenges brought into their lives by war.

 

Horses and Heroes has a ready-made market with a demographic that crosses all ages, ethnic backgrounds, and genders, especially the 18 to 49-year age group. Our target audience will include military personnel, veterans, and their families from past conflicts to the present as well as others who have been challenged with PTSD and TBI.

 

Horses and Heroes has been formatted to include two 30-second billboards and one two-minute bridge at the bottom of the hour, which will promote our cross-branding partner.   Each of the 28 billboards will honor the service and memory or the service and future of a specific veteran, while the 14 bridges will focus on the sponsor's support of veterans or non-profit organizations that support veterans.  The billboards will promote the cross-branding partner by actively involving their customer base in the decision-making process of how the veterans to be honored will be chosen.  More than just showing existing commercials, the two-minute bridges would be tailored to highlight the sponsor's support of veterans or their support of non-profit organizations that support veterans. 

 

The nomination process for the veterans to be honored on the billboards would begin with a media campaign directing the customers on how to nominate a veteran.  As they are nominated, their names would be announced and their information would be added to the sponsor's and Horses and Heroes' websites.  The election process would begin at the local level with the partner's clients voting for their favorite veteran.  The top local winners at each level would advance to the next level to once again be voted upon. The winner on the state level would then move on to the national level competition. All 50 state winners would be honored on the websites, but only the top 28 would be honored on air. However, the winners will not be announced until the series airs, thereby creating suspense and an audience.

 

We will be running eight cameras and 10 body cameras.   Our partners will have exclusive use of any footage that isn’t used in the series.  The videos will be repackaged to give the partner’s customer base additional scenes that weren’t aired due to time restrictions, especially the interviews with the cast, and the group activities that were censored for content.  Additionally, the videos could be used to produce commercials to promote the partner on the networks and social media.  Once the primary sponsor has assessed their needs, the remaining footage will be offered to the secondary sponsors for their use.

Horses and Heroes offer its corporate cross-branding partner the ability to promote its brand in a socially responsible way.

Executive Producer:

Theresa Pachesny Chaze

Link to bio

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Beach: Veteran, Director, DP

 

Eric Beach's experience as a veteran as well as those in front of and behind the cameras makes him an excellent choice to direct Horses and Heroes' first season.


Take twos do not exist in unscripted TV. You either get the shot the first time or it is gone forever. As a veteran, Beach learned to think quickly on his feet and to expect the unexpected. These experiences give him the ability too catch the best moments and bring them to screen.

Beach has turned his physical and emotional challenges into a motivating force to help others find their paths to healing. His personal insights serve to enhances his ability to relate to the challenges the cast will be facing and compassionately bring their stories to screen.

Director

Hosts

Tim Abell: Veteran, Actor, and Horse Trainer

 

IMDB link

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the age of 17, Tim Abell joined the army. Owing to his outstanding leadership skills, Tim was promoted during basic training. He advanced quickly, attending AIT, Airborne School and Ranger School, at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was assigned to the 2nd Ranger Battalion at Ft. Lewis, Washington. During his final year in the Army he served with the 3rd US Infantry, "The Old Guard", Caisson Platoon, in which he excelled as a horseman. In addition to his normal duties, he portrayed Robert E. Lee and Andrew Jackson during the re-enactments of the History of the United States Torch Light Tattoo at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC and a longer version called "The Spirit of America", which was performed at various locations. Tim fulled his commitment to the Army and honorably separated.

 

 

 

After his tour of duty, he enrolled in college and quickly became involved with several aspects of theater, film, and television, including acting and dancing. Just short of graduating an opportunity presented itself and he moved to Los Angeles . He appeared in a series of low-budget films and television series, including:

Jag (1995)

Soldier of Fortune (1997)

The Base (1999)

The Substitute: Failure Is Not an Option (2001

The Perfect Husband

Murder, She Wrote: The Last Free Man (2001)

Dead Simple" a.k.a Viva Las Nowhere (2001)

We Were Soldiers (2002)

CSI: Miami (2002)

NCIS (2003).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tim has co-produced and starred in the multi-award-winning film Soldier of God (2005), directed by W.D. Hogan and produced by Mir Bahmanyar. Soldier of God won Best Feature Film awards for 2005 at The Deep Ellum Film Festival in Dallas, The Stratford-upon-Avon International Film Festival in England and The Berkley Film Festival in California. Tim also starred in and was associate producer on the Thadd Turner-written Miracle at Sage Creek (2005), which also starred David Carradine, Wes Studi, Michael Parks and Irene Bedard. Tim's IMDB has a complete listing of his past and current projects

 

 

 

David Ferruolo: Veteran, Therapist, Veteran Advocate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many labels can be accurately applied to Ferruolo: veteran, healer, author, adventurer, and video host-producer.  A former Navy Seal and successful business owner, Ferruolo is an accomplished musician, an avid hiker, kayaker, rock climber, horse enthusiast, skier, and snowboarder. He has 100 plus skydives, over 10,000 scuba dives to his credit and hosts his own TV series called NH Alive.

 

He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Southern New Hampshire University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Suma Cum Laude from the University of New Hampshire with a Master’s Degree in Social Work.  Currently, he is studying for his Doctorate at the Plymouth State University.

 

A published author of several self-help books and numerous articles, Ferruole’s focus remains on veterans’ issues.    As a Navy Seal, Ferruolo understands the physical and emotional challenges that war brings into military personnel’s lives.   His interest in Equine Therapy was prompt by his own life experience.  The positive affects Equine Therapy made in his own life led him write articles and produce videos promoting its effectiveness on combat related issues.  As a dynamic presence both in front of and behind the camera, Ferruole uses his talents and unique voice to produce videos, which show other veterans the healing and supportive effects of working with horses.

 

Currently Ferruolo works at Health First Family Care in their Psychotherapy & Behavioral Health department.  His duties include individual and group outpatient psychotherapy, resource support and advocacy for marginalized populations, multidisciplinary collaborations, and team development.

 

Joining the Horses and Heroes team as the Veteran Coordinator and Peer Support Team Leader, he will be a major voice in deciding which veterans will be chosen to participate in the program.  His experience on and off the battlefield gives him the leadership and the compassion to lead the peer group sessions so that they will be beneficial to the participating veterans as well as the viewers.

 

 

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