Peace at Home Project at Waypoint Ranch

10/18/2026

well said GratitudeAmerica, Inc

Behind every seat at a Military Support Retreat is someone who will never meet the person who sat in it.

They won't hear the veteran's name. They won't see the Growth Companion's face the moment a horse leans into her hand, or the first time she laughs all weekend.

That's you.

You'll never see the moment two people find a shared language for the first time.

But you made the room where it happened.

GratitudeAmerica is entirely privately funded. No government money. Just people who decided veterans and the ones who love them deserve more than getting by. And 87 cents of every dollar goes straight to programs.

We hold ourselves to that. So do the people who check: Candid/GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency, Charity Navigator Four-Star, and Top-Rated on GreatNonprofits.

This week, someone is packing a bag for a retreat you'll never see. Thank you for making sure there's a seat waiting.

💙 Give here: https://gratitudeamerica.org/donate/

09/26/2026

Well said GratitudeAmerica, Inc

Almost every program we run has a horse in it. People ask why.

Here's the honest answer, and it isn't the one you'd expect.

A lot of the people who come to us have spent years getting extremely good at one particular skill: appearing fine. That isn't lying. It's an adaptation. You learn it in a unit where showing strain changes how people look at you, and then you carry it into a marriage, a shift, a Thanksgiving table. Twenty years on, you can walk into any room and hand it exactly what it expects.

You cannot do that with a horse.

A horse is a prey animal. Reading what is actually happening around it is how it stays alive. It doesn't care what you say, what you did in the service, or what expression you've arranged your face into. It responds to your body — how you're breathing, how you're standing, whether your hands are steady, whether you're actually here or somewhere else entirely.

So a man walks up with the mask on, and the horse steps away. And he has to do something he may not have done in years: settle, for real, before anything else can happen.

That's the moment. Not the horse. The moment.

It's also about the safest place to have it. Nobody is watching you fail an assignment. There's no circle where you have to explain yourself out loud. You stand in the sun with an animal that meets you exactly where you actually are, and then you get to decide what to do about that.

The other half is simpler. It's outside. It's physical. It's a task with a beginning and an end. And for a lot of people it's the first time in a long while they've laughed without checking who saw.

One thing we'll be straight about: this is not equine therapy, and we don't claim it treats anything. The research on equine-assisted work is promising and still thin. What we do is training in post-traumatic growth. The horses are one of the ways we get people out of their heads and into something real long enough for the training to land.

That's why they're there.

GratitudeAmerica.org

08/13/2026

You can see it, especially sitting around the table, It’s cohesion, fellowship, tribe. And it’s great to see.
Seek that. It’s closer than you think.
Camp Southern Ground

07/22/2026

07/14/2026

Can we just “be” with an other?

There are moments when being with another person becomes work before either of us has said very much.

We notice their face, their tone, the pause before they answer. We wonder whether we should explain ourselves, reassure them, respond differently, or show that we are all right. Even genuine care can create an atmosphere in which something is now expected to happen. Pain should become speakable. Silence should be filled. Distance should be repaired. The relationship should somehow be returned to a form both people can tolerate.

A horse does not enter the encounter with those same social expectations and difficulties.

She may orient towards us, move away, remain nearby, continue grazing, or turn his attention elsewhere. He does not expect an appropriate response. She does not require us to explain what is happening, reassure him that the relationship is intact, or make our inner state easier for him to understand. In her presence, we may briefly stop organising ourselves around how we are being perceived.

That can feel like relief.
It may even feel like being understood, although no understanding has been declared and nothing has necessarily been done to produce it.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons non-human animals - in EAP horses - are so readily deemed “helpers.”

When we say that a horse helps us, are we describing something the horse does—or the relief of no longer having to make ourselves manageable for another human being?

05/09/2026

Ride tomorrow Rain or Shine!

The weather isn’t sure what it wants to do, but this is a rain or shine event!

See you tomorrow morning!

Cataula VFW Post 10558
VFW Auxiliary Post 10558
Rally Point Harley-Davidson
Peace at Home Project at Waypoint Ranch
DSPII - Waypoint
Doodlum's Barbecue and Fruit Stand

05/03/2026

I am certain that our ‘Texas Herd’ horses felt Don Knapp passing. They all still live together and we are honored to sanctuary them. We send our deepest sympathies and condolences to Don’s family and friends.

Ace, Freckles, Breezy, Star, Blue and Tye

Ray Cirasa Stephanie Cirasa
Don Knapp Dawn Knapp
Allyson Perkins DeCanio

With great sadness, we share that Pegasus lost a family member today. Our precious Don Knapp passed away. Don was an amazing horseman, and we were so blessed to have had him as one of our trainers. He developed so many of the Pegasus horses and mules. Don spent the last years of his life back in Canada with his loving family. He shall be missed by all of us. We love you, Don. ❤️

04/18/2026

A historic day for all Americans!

04/18/2026

Thank you Lutrell family 😎 link to EO below.

03/15/2026

VETS: Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, Inc. we are in full support with you! Friends and military family please share this in your networks!


Stephanie Cirasa

Veteran voices were front and center in Georgia this week.

Jimmy Armel, a VETS Foundational Healing Grant recipient, joined advocates and lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol as VETS pushed for the passage of HB 1296.

🔔 The bill has now passed the Georgia House unanimously and will move forward as lawmakers consider it in the Senate.

Pictured with Jimmy are Rep. David Clark, Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, and Jesse MacLachlan with the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition—who are helping advance research and new possibilities for veterans living with PTSD, TBI, and other service-related conditions.

Learn more about our advocacy work at https://vets.today/4saWl3m.