By Roslyn Ryan
Editor

Powhatan resident Clint Arrington likes to build things—and he’s good at it.

A mason by trade, he’s built elaborate outdoor pavilions and patios aplenty. But his most ambitious project, which he began a little over two years ago, has required much more than muscle and mortar.

From his home on Route 13, Arrington runs one of Virginia’s only therapeutic riding programs for veterans. There on his property, surrounded by trees and rolling fields, veterans from WWII to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan come to find solace and strength on the backs of Arrington’s horses.

Therapeutic riding has been widely used for decades to help people dealing with various disabilities, from autism to physical and emotional trauma.

For Arrington, the work he and the volunteers do at Lonesome Dove is about helping those who have given so much transition back into the lives they left behind.

“This gives [veterans] the courage to move forward,” said Arrington last month, as he readied the riding area for a lesson. “It allows them to know that if they can ride a horse they can do anything.”
For all the work Arrington and the volunteers at Lonesome Dove have done for others, they still have plenty of needs themselves. As of mid-January they were still looking for a grant writer, and they always need volunteers. They have also been collecting donations to put toward a lift system, which would help in getting veterans on and off the horses.

While they often go about their work with little fanfare, Arrington and the dedicated volunteers at Lonesome Dove did receive a rather prestigious stamp of approval recently.

A joint General Assembly resolution, sponsored by Senator John Watkins, R-Powhatan, praised the facility for creating “model programs and services for veterans with disabilities, enabling them to integrate successfully back into their community after injury.”

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Some of the veterans that have come to Lonesome Dove have flat out refused, at first, to do anything more than observe from the side of the ring.

But Clint has a quality about him that seems to assuage whatever fears may be holding the visitors back.

Just let me set you on the horse, he’ll say.

Then:

Just let me lead the horse a few feet…

Then:
Let’s go just a little faster…

Before they know it, even the ones who had steadfastly refused to even consider getting on the horse when they arrived are making their way around the ring, smiling from ear to ear.

Veteran Garland Strickland remembers thinking, before his first trip to Lonesome Dove, that the entire trip was probably not going to work out well.

“I kept debating, thinking ‘I can’t get on a horse, I can’t even walk,” said Strickland, who arrived at McGuire Hospital’s polytrauma unit after being wounded in an explosion while serving in Iraq.

Now Strickland said he understands how valuable the program is, and what it means to the men and women it serves.

After suffering severe and often debilitating injuries, “It’s really a treat to see that they can [still] do some things,” he said. “Life doesn’t end…this makes it a little bit easier for them to come to terms with it.”

For his part, Arrington said he hopes the work he and his volunteers are doing will be just the beginning.

“I hope we can help instigate and show there’s a need for it. If [others] get wind of what we’re doing, maybe someone else will do it [too],” said Arrington.
“The more the merrier.”