Title: Honoring a Hero: The Dedication of the Veteran’s Cabin by Operation Remount Corporation

Jess Oaks

JAY EM – Operation Remount Corporation, Mustangs for Veterans, held a special ceremony over the weekend where they dedicated an addition to their facility, the Veteran’s Cabin, in memory of BJ Shepperson. The dedication was held on Saturday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“Sergeant Billy James Shepperson was born on May 18, 1978, in Casper, Wyoming, during a spring blizzard to Jim and Alice Shepperson, joining his older brother Baxter into the Shepperson household. Billy studied Agricultural Business at Casper College after graduating from Hot Springs County High School in 1996. In February 2001, Billy enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, attending recruit training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot – San Diego, California. Following initial training, Billy was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment where he served as a rifleman and Scout-Sniper. As part of his service, Billy attended and successfully graduated from the Marine Corps Scout-Sniper School and deployed overseas three times to include two combat tours to Iraq in 2003-04,” Shepperson’s obituary reads. “Billy’s decorations include the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (3), Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Medal, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, and the Purple Heart.”

According to Karen Alexander, corporation co-founder, Shepperson ultimately committed suicide.

“His father passed away a couple of years ago. Part of his desire was that some of the money from his estate go to a program that helps veterans. So, we were chosen and we decided with BJ’s stepmom, that probably [a cabin was the] best way to utilize that (the funds) was because the veterans stayed here for six weeks. We thought the best way utilize that donation was to build a cavern so that we have plenty of housing,” Alexander said. “The more housing we have, the more veterans we can help.”

“We had 20 different individuals that came to help build it. Eighteen of those were veterans. They spent 750 hours putting this cabin up. They just donated their talents and their time to do it,” Alexander explained.

Operation Remount Corporation pairs wild mustangs with veterans and first responders suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to their website, the mustangs for veterans program is a six-week course located in Jay Em at the Mirrored K Legacy Ranch. By combining didactic and hands-on learning experiences, the participants are provided with skills and knowledge to work with wild mustangs.

“What we do is we take wild mustangs from the Bureau of Land Management, specifically three-strikers,” Alexander explained. “The reason why we take three strikers is after three adoptions, if the horse doesn’t get adopted, if the horse doesn’t get adopted, they run out of chances. They end up in holding or, you know, somewhere. So, we concentrate on taking those horses and try to find them a forever home.”

“The mustangs, they kind of have their own PTSD. If you think about how herd bound horses are, especially mustangs. They’ve been out on the range. They’ve been in bands and herds their entire lives. Then, all the sudden, you have this big scary helicopter that scares them and runs them into this big old chute. They get separated from their bands and their herds. It’s very traumatic,” Alexander said. “A lot of them will break their necks by trying to escape and trying to get back to their family. So, it’s really traumatic. Then after that, you have all these human hands on them doing things that are strange and uncomfortable, like putting the freeze brand on, giving them immunizations, all the stuff that they do that is necessary for their health.”

According to Alexander, mustangs have not had any positive interactions with humans. Horses often fear humans and associate people with the traumatic experiences of when they were captured.

“Then, they are shoved in these holding facilities with a lot of other horse that they don’t know that have come from many different areas. So, now, we have a pecking order and it just adds more stress. It’s all out of whack. There’s nothing against the Bureau of Land Management here. I want to make sure and specify that they have a very important job and it’s very hard job,” Alexander said. “No matter what they do, isn’t not going to be right because you have one camp of people that are saying, ‘Leave the horses alone.’ And you have another camp of people that’s saying, ‘We need to get rid of all of these horses.’ So, there’s more room for cattle operations or whatnot. Everybody’s got their own side. It doesn’t matter what the Bureau of Land Management does, there’s going to be somebody mad at them.”

“I think they’re doing the best they can with what they have. A lot of the reasons these horses get gathered to begin with is to prevent starvation, thirst – if they get overcrowded, disease, wildfires, whatever it may be, they have to thin the herds. Or else they just proliferate and then they starve to death. So, they are doing the best they can,” Alexander explained.

Once the mustangs arrive at the corporation, they are placed in a holding pen and Karen’s husband and corporation founder, Kelly, takes the program participants to meet the mustangs.

“Kelly takes them to the holding facility and they get to pick their own horses or the horses pick them. Before the program even starts, they actually get in the pens with wild horses and they get to interact with them. That’s because it’s all about bonding. It’s all about the relationship. The bonding starts right there. So, we’re already a step ahead,” Alexander explained. “During the six weeks that they’re here, there’s didactic learning. We have a workbook. The first chapter’s about kind of orientation and mental health and those kinds of things – strategies to mitigate symptoms of PTSD or anxiety. The rest of the book is all about horse care. It’s anything from mustang facts to mustang behavior, horse language and the care of a horse. They’re just anything from feed and water to exercise to what of living conditions they should have.”

“Kelly goes through the workbook in the mornings on the first couple of weeks and in the afternoons, it’s all horse work. After the workbook is done, it’s all horse work. It’s all about learning to be centered, grounded and in the moment,” Alexander explained. “The reason why we use mustangs is because they are very active. They have their own PTSD. They don’t like humans because the interactions have been bad for them,” Alexander said. “And they mirror our emotions.”

Alexander noted a horse’s attitude depends on his handler.

“If I step into a pen and I’m being all mean and unsure of myself, then that mustang is not going to trust me as a leader. If I go in there and I’m afraid and I’m anxious and my heart rate’s up high, then the mustang is going to say, ‘Wow, they’re afraid.’ I need to be afraid,” Alexander said. “So, what we do is we teach the human to able to mitigate those symptoms, leave everything outside the pen. So, not to worry about the bad phone call or things that are going wrong at work or what happened to me in Afghanistan or things like that. They have to be present and, in the moment, and be focused on that horse to build that relationship.”

“The thought process is through – we heal and we learn and we can become better people through practice. It’s all about habits. If I practice being grounded and centered every day with this horse, day in and day out, it’s going to be easier for me to transfer that to my home life or to my work life or things like that,” Alexander explained. “It’s just practicing those skills and learning how to do that.”

The Alexanders have been operating the corporation since 2020, after Kelly visited a similar program.

“Kelly is a veteran. He was in for 22 years, did multiple deployments, Iraq, Afghanistan. His last trip was particularly hard, I think. You know, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, those kinds of things. He really struggled with the anxiety and depression. He went to the VA and tried a lot of their modalities,” Alexander said. “Again, nothing against the VA, they were doing a lot of things with Kelly. A lot of things that are successful for some people, but for Kelly, things just weren’t clicking. They kept trying to tell him be centered, grounded and in the moment. He could not quite grasp that idea. He couldn’t understand truly what that meant and how to implement it.”

“So, one time, he was sitting in the VA office waiting for an appointment and he was looking through a magazine and he found an article about horse therapy. Then he found – there was what is called the Mustang Heritage Foundation in Texas. They were offering a program where veterans could come and gentle a mustang and keep the mustang at the end of the program,” Alexander said. “It had nothing to do with mental health. It was just a way corporate culture of giving back to veterans. Kelly thought, ‘Well, I want to try that.’ He got accepted into the program.”

Kelly was accepted into the Texas program and he spent eight weeks working with his horse, Indy.

“That was when Kelly had this aha moment. Like, ‘Wow, I understand what they were saying about being in the moment.’ Because the horse can stomp me in the dirt if it wants to. I have to have my head in the right place and focus on this horse and work on this bonding and work on this relationship. I can’t do that with all this other stuff in my head. We had a horse trainer who put it very nicely, quiet the noise in the head. It did so much for Kelly. When he came home, he’s like, ‘You know what, if this could help me like this, it could help so many others. And so that was his new mission. I’m no longer a soldier because he was medically boarded out. So, all of the sudden he has no purpose in his life,” Alexander explained. “Well, now this is his purpose.”

The couple got serious about their new adventure of helping others in 2020 and the Operation Remount Corporation became a non-profit, 501 (c)3 in 2021. To date, the corporation has touched the lives of 22 veterans and first responders struggling with PTSD. Those participants have traveled from Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Kansas and Arkansas.

“We lose 22 veterans a day from suicide,” Alexander explained.