Special Services At the Cowgirls and Women Warriors Retreat, female veterans find healing in a variety of community activities, including pottery classes.
programs, and general support.” Part of the healing starts with what
Morse and Smith know best: horses. Riding workshops and horse-therapy sessions play large roles in the retreat, with the ranch’s Cowgirl Xtreme Trail Course — a riding obstacle course of sorts — serving as a focal point. But the soldiers don’t stay put for long. Morse and the other cowgirls keep them mov- ing from class to class throughout the day. Pottery, gardening, Dutch-oven cooking, sketching, massage, scrap- booking, journaling, fly-fishing, and even metal welding were just some of the options at this year’s retreat, which was held on May 19–21. Many of the classes are taught by renowned experts. Nance Van Winckel, an author and poet who has received two National Endow- ment for the Arts poetry fellowships, taught the journaling class. “We keep mixing it up so it’s not the
same old, same old,” Morse said, “so if someone comes back for a repeat retreat they’re still getting something new.”
SUPPORT SYSTEM And come back they do. Since the first Cowgirls and Women Warriors Retreat in 2010, 25 to 30 veterans from all over the country have returned for the event each May. This year, a second mini retreat took place in October — a
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half-day kayak trip down the Spokane River, ending with a barbecue and bonfire back at the ranch for 15 or so local veterans. Typically, the annual May retreat also involves about 20 vol- unteers who do everything from teach classes and assist with the horses to provide catering and accommodations. “By the end of the retreat, [the
veterans] have someone they can talk to,” Morse said. “When you feel like you don’t have a support system, it can change your whole outlook on every- thing — the way you relate with your children, your husband, your friends, your family. It changes everything when you feel like there’s somebody who gets it, who gets you.” Funding from the Wounded War-
rior Project as well as donations and support from the Spokane Veterans Outreach Center, the Red Cross, and numerous local businesses help keep the retreats — now run as an official nonprofit — going and growing. “We don’t plan on getting the numbers larger, we just plan on having more,” Morse said. “That’s part of the magic of the retreat — if we get too big, then we’ll start to lose that camaraderie.”
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Contributing Editor Jennifer N. Dienst is a freelance writer based in Charleston, S.C.
BREAKOUT
The Cause There are nearly two million female veterans in the United States — and, according to the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation, it can take up to seven years for them to become fully acclimated to civilian life after returning from deployment. The Cowgirl Co-op’s Shannon Morse says that one of the most rewarding parts of running the Cowgirls and Women Warriors Retreat is watching the change that happens in the women during the course of just a few days. “One of the neat things is they start to realize they need to reconnect,” Morse said, “that not everyone steps up and says we support you, but that there’s a greater amount of support than they initially realized.”
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› To learn more about the Cowgirl Co-Op, visit cowgirlco-op.com. › For more information about the Cowgirls and Women Warriors Retreat, visit cowgirlsandwomenwarriors. com.