JAY EM, Wyo. – While Memorial Day is a time for remembrance, it can also be a difficult period for many veterans, particularly those struggling with mental health.

A program in Wyoming is helping to address those challenges by pairing veterans with wild mustangs in a unique approach to healing.

VETERANS DAY: DENNIS QUAID, TRACE ADKINS AMONG HOLLYWOOD STARS HONORING OUR MILITARY

According to data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from 2001 to 2022, veterans are more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD, depression and anxiety than civilians. Each year, approximately 6,000 veterans die by suicide.

At some point in their lives, 7 out of every 100 veterans (or 7%) will experience PTSD, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

In the small town of Jay Em, Wyoming, a nonprofit called Operation Remount Corporation is offering a form of equine therapy that serves not only veterans and first responders, but also the mustangs—many of which come from traumatic backgrounds.

Karen Alexander, co-founder of Operation Remount, says some mustangs also experience trauma and anxiety, making the program a form of reciprocal healing. 

“These are mustangs that went through three adoptions and were not accepted or not adopted,” Alexander said. “When the mustangs first come, they are very afraid of humans. It’s really neat to see when that animal finally says, I can trust you.”

TRUMP SUPRISES 104-YEAR-OLD WWII VETERAN WITH BIRTHDAY MESSAGE AFTER VIRAL TIKTOK INVITE 

Veteran Sean Walker is one of this year’s participants at Operation Remount. He says joining the program and meeting his horse, nicknamed Spirit, was needed after serving in the military.

Walker, who completed two tours in Iraq and one in Bosnia with the Kansas National Guard, says just a few weeks with his horse, Spirit, has already made a significant impact.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from 2001 to 2022, veterans are more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD, depression and anxiety than civilians.  (Kennedy Hayes/ Fox News)

“We call him Enduring Spirit Wind,” Walker said. “He’s taught me probably more than I could have possibly taught him.”

After retiring from the military, Walker said reintegrating into civilian life was difficult. Like many other veterans, he experienced mental health challenges.

The program recently added a new red cabin to house participants during the six-week course. It was built in honor of Marine Corps Sgt. B.J. Shepperson, who served two deployments and struggled with the transition back to civilian life in Wyoming.

Shepperson said his brother B.J. loved horses and would have really appreciated what this program is doing to help other veterans. 

PTSD is slightly more common among Veterans than civilians. At some point in their life, 7 out of every 100 Veterans (or 7%) will have PTSD.  (Kennedy Hayes/ FOX News)

“After two deployments and coming back to Wyoming, he had a hard time re-adjusting,” said his brother, Baxter Shepperson.

VETERAN ON MISSION TO COMBAT SUICIDE IN MILITARY COMMUNITY

Program leaders say they’re working to construct more cabins, allowing additional veterans and first responders to stay overnight during the program as they experience the therapeutic bond with a horse.

“It’s like when you found a connection that you’ve lost,” Walker said. “It allows you to have that reconnection and Spirit has been that.”

Operation Remount allows the veterans and first responders to keep the wild horse after completing the six-week course. The nonprofit holds sessions in both spring and fall.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The team at Operation Remount is now working toward building an indoor facility so they can offer the program throughout the year, even during Wyoming’s harsh winter months.

The seasonally closed section of Wyoming 130 through the Snowy Range has officially reopened for the summer, the Wyoming Department of Transportation announced Thursday.

According to a news release, crews from Laramie and Saratoga, with some help from Casper and Cheyenne crews, started work on the 12-mile stretch of the scenic byway in mid-May with a target reopening date of Memorial Day weekend.

WYDOT says multiple rotary plows, snowcats, and other heavy equipment were used to clear snowdrifts as tall as 15 feet.

‘Snowstorms Can Still Happen’

Although the mountain pass is now open to traffic, WYDOT says travelers should stay alert, as severe weather is still possible.

“Spring snowstorms can still happen at higher elevations,” said WYDOT District 1 Area Maintenance Supervisor Eric Anderson.

“Conditions may be impassable overnight,” he added. “Travelers should take their time and be aware there may still be road hazards.”

Wyoming 130, which tops out at 10,800 feet, is one of several high-elevation mountain roads in Wyoming that closes annually in late fall when relatively low traffic and deep snow accumulations render plowing operations impractical.

Last year, the scenic byway closed for the winter season on Nov. 19.

Walmart is asking Wyoming’s lawmakers to bolster the state’s anti-theft laws against sophisticated, multi-person organized theft attacks.

In response, the legislative Joint Judiciary Committee during its Tuesday meeting in Torrington voted to draft bills that would increase the penalty for misdemeanor theft, decrease the monetary threshold for charging felony theft, decrease the number of “strikes” required to charge a repeat shoplifter with a felony and add penalties for people who cross county lines to commit crimes.

The committee has about eight months to fine-tune, change or reject this bill draft ahead of the Feb. 9 lawmaking session.

Organized retail crime involves multiple people, working out a structured plan to commit targeted thefts, often to re-sell the items, witnesses told the committee Tuesday.

“This is something we see happening across all our stores in Wyoming,” Walmart representative Deborah Herron, who appeared via virtual link, told the committee. “It’s certainly something we’ve seen… and would appreciate the opportunity to make things a little better in Wyoming.”

Two lawmakers asked Herron for specific figures relating Walmart’s losses to crimes like these in Wyoming, and how those compare to other states.

Herron said she didn’t have those figures on hand but would get them within the next couple weeks.

Retail crime’s cost to businesses including lost product costs, higher insurance costs, increased price of goods and unrealized wages was $222.8 million in 2021 in Wyoming, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports.

The total value of goods stolen from Wyoming retailers in 2021 was $9,769,336, the report adds. And the lost tax revenue that year was $1,175,800.

Commerce, Plus Liquor

Walmart wasn’t alone.

Retail advocates, a law enforcement group and the state’s liquor industry also urged legislators to take action.

Dale Steenbergen, CEO of the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce and CEO of the Wyoming Chamber of Commerce, said the thefts are affecting other retailers across Wyoming.

A woman who owned a private meat market “broke my heart,” said Steenbergen, with the story of a man who held the fire escape door open to generate alarm while another man stole $900 worth of meat from the woman’s shop.

The number of people committing organized thefts like these is on the rise, the value of what’s being stolen is rising, and associated violence is also growing, said Steenbergen

Gone are the days when a clerk can tackle someone on the sidewalk without fear of getting shot, he added.

Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police executive director Allen Thompson echoed that, saying across his life’s work in the military and law enforcement, the most dangerous job he had was apprehending shoplifters.

“I received two stab wounds as a result,” said Thompson. 

How We Arrest Folk

Thompson suggested that the committee consider changing Wyoming’s preconditions for arrest.

Those say an officer can arrest someone without a warrant for any crime they commit in his presence. He can arrest a person if he has probable cause that that person committed a felony.

But misdemeanors committed outside the officer’s presence are trickier.

There are some exceptions such as for the misdemeanors of domestic battery and DUI.

But generally, an officer can’t arrest someone who commits a misdemeanor outside the officer’s presence, without a warrant, unless the officer has probable cause not only to believe the crime happened, but also that the person who committed it will not be caught if let go, may injure himself or others or damage property, or may destroy or conceal evidence in the course of his crime.

Thompson clarified in a later interview with Cowboy State Daily that not all members of his group, “but some,” believe easing those preconditions to make it easier to arrest someone would help them better investigate those retail theft campaigns.

Often simple shoplifting crimes turn out to be part of bigger, repetitive, and orchestrated schemes upon investigation – but it’s hard to arrest a passer-through on a newly-discovered felony charge if he’s already left town with a citation, Thompson indicated to the committee.

The counties that suffer the most from those campaigns are those along the interstate highways, he said, but small towns aren’t immune either.

Not Doing That Just Now

The committee did not draft a bill to change Wyoming’s preconditions for arrest.

But, on a motion from Rep. Daniel Singh, R-Cheyenne, the committee voted to draft a bill increasing Wyoming’s ability to enforce theft.

The bill as now visualized would reduce the threshold for a prosecutor to elevate misdemeanor theft charges to felonies (which are punishable by up to 10 years in prison) for stolen goods of $1,000 to $500.

It would also increase the misdemeanor theft penalty from six months in jail to one year.

And it would decrease Wyoming’s “five-strike” shoplifting law, so that a person convicted of shoplifting three times – rather than five – could be charged with a felony.

Committee Co-Chair Art Washut, R-Casper, proposed another bill draft, which the committee voted to pursue.

That one would add a standalone crime or sentencing enhancement for people whose crimes cross county lines.

If a person flees one county to avoid apprehension, prosecution – or in the furtherance of a new felony – the crime could be added to their charges, Washut noted.

Washut asked for a maximum five-year penalty to be attached to that.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.