We held a HorseBack open day today, with visitors from Combat Stress, Walking With the Wounded, Forward Assist, Bellrock, the Scottish Association for Mental Health, Scottish Veterans’ Housing, Aberdeen Council, Turning Point Scotland, and Aberdeenshire Salutes. It was really important to us to gather together all these people who help veterans in their different ways, and see how we could co-ordinate our efforts, learn from each other, and develop valuable partnerships. One of the things that many of those who work in this field notice is that there is not enough joining up and pooling of resources and knowledge. We hoped that this first open day might go some way to remedy this.
It was a huge delight to meet so many fascinating and engaged people, and we hope this day will prove the beginning of many fruitful relationships.
We asked one of our visitors for her impression of HorseBack. She gave a blinding smile. ‘Well,’ she said, looking out over the hills, ‘as many of your veterans say, the moment I walked through the gates, I felt my cares fall away.’
That was one of the finest compliments we could receive.
We would like to thank all our visitors for so generously giving us their time, their expertise and their support. It was a tremendous boost to us, and a great pleasure.
