UPPER FREEHOLD — The New Jersey Horse Council will present a screening of “Riding My Way Back,” an award-winning documentary about the powerful healing of therapeutic riding for a veteran with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), at Rick’s Saddle Shop, 282 Route 539, at 6 p.m. Feb. 26. This event is free and open to the public.
“Riding My Way Back” chronicles one soldier’s journey back from the brink of suicide, according to a press release. In 2010, Staff Sgt. Aaron Heliker returned from multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with a TBI and PTSD.
At his most desperate and isolated time, on 42 medications and suicidal, Heliker is introduced to the unlikeliest of saviors: a horse named Fred.
Through caring for Fred, Heliker begins the difficult process of reconnecting to the world around him and healing the invisible wounds of war that nearly defeated him.