The Horse Program at Aspen Ranch
One of the Ranch's outstanding features is its horse program for troubled teens, in which all students are required to participate. The ranch is home to approximately 35 horses and 5 steers who are all employed in providing therapy and experiential learning to our students. Besides these wonderful animals, Aspen Ranch also boasts our 225' x 110' indoor riding arena, enabling the horse therapy program to be fully functional regardless of weather.
What makes the horse program at Aspen Ranch different?
We believe interaction with horses can be beneficial regardless of the program used, for reasons which will be discussed below. We maximize the use of our horses through animal assisted therapy, or equine assisted psychotherapy - a program we call Equine Therapy. Equine Therapy combines the power of the horse with effective teaching philosophies, experiential learning, therapy, and discussion groups, to be the ultimate horse program.
What is Equine Therapy?
Equine Therapy is founded on the principle that, through working with horses, students can learn life skills that initiate change. All aspects of horses and horsemanship are used in the program, from bareback riding, to jumping, to barrel racing, to young horse training. Horsemanship skills are integrated with team building activities, experiential learning, and therapy groups to create a unique program with endless possibilities.
How does Equine Therapy differ from regular riding lessons?
In riding lessons, the focus is on gaining riding skills and a mastery of horsemanship. While we do teach students how to ride and work with horses, our focus at the ranch is somewhat different. We focus on helping students gain life skills, such as positive communication, trust, honest achievement, value congruent behavior, and anger management, with the belief that horsemanship skills will grow as a natural result of the student's growth in these other areas. When students encounter a problem with a horse we approach it from the standpoint of a life problem, instead of just a horse problem. We may ask the student questions such as "What is the horse telling you? What part do you play in this problem? What can you do differently?" Along with gaining horsemanship skills, students gain broader, more concrete life skills which can be integrated into their lives.
Also distinguishing our program from a regular riding program is the fact that all students are required to start out riding bareback. Students must actually earn the privilege to use a saddle, by passing a riding test, completing a written study guide, and exhibiting their knowledge about horses. The bareback riding provides a challenge for even the most capable rider. Not only does it help the rider to learn to ride the horse instead of the saddle, it helps the student learn how important nonverbal communication is. The horse and rider are able to feel the movement of the other. The student learns how to communicate with their body movements instead of trying to control with the bridle. It also gives incentive for the students to begin working towards a goal. For some students this may be the first time in a long time that they have actually worked towards something positive. Many students are initially motivated to begin working towards their levels at the ranch by first earning their saddle.
Once students earn their saddle, they can go on to learn many more difficult riding skills, such as jumping, training a young untrained horse, or working together with a horse using the skills they have learned while team penning or sorting the steers we have at the Ranch, thus providing a continual challenge and the opportunity for growth. Equally as important, there are further levels in the equine program for the students to earn, the next level requiring students to teach other students the skills that they have gained. By learning to teach, students are able to gain further confidence in themselves and their ability to affect other people.
Also differentiating our program from a riding program is the fact that riding classes are often combined with processing groups, therapy, and team building activities. Students are constantly asked to relate lessons they learned from the horses back to their every day lives. In this way the skills students learn in horse classes become life skills, not just horse skills.
Why are Horses Therapeutic?
There is just something about the horse. Small children who have never even seen a horse spend hours drawing horses, pretending to be horses, and "playing horse". Movie-goers gasp when a horse runs onto the screen. For reasons that may forever remain unknown, the horse holds a special captivation and power that none of us ever out-grow. If a simple picture of a horse has the power to emotionally move us, imagine the strength and effect of an actual interaction. Horses have a natural healing power that has been proven effective in physical, mental, and emotional therapy. We often see marked change in a student just from them spending some simple, quiet time alone with a horse.
Besides the innate power and healing energy that horses possess, interacting with them has other logical benefits. Horses are big, often intimidating animals. Because of this, interacting with a horse immediately challenges issues of fear and confidence in students. Horses are also incredibly responsive to human emotion and action. Horses will immediately sense and respond to a student's negative emotions and behaviors. The horse, then, often acts as a mirror to the student. For example, a frustrated student can quickly cause his/her horse to become equally frustrated. This forces students to be accountable for their emotions, and to recognize the effects that their emotions and behaviors can have on others.
Another advantage of the horses is their honesty. Unlike humans, horses have no hidden agenda or conflicting feelings. Horses, therefore, never lie and do not hesitate to truthfully tell the student "how it is." Horses also do not respond positively to the faulty forms of communication (such as manipulation, bullying, or passive/aggressive behavior) that students are accustomed to using. To successfully work with a horse, controlled and effective body language is essential, forcing students to be aware of their methods of communication and to be able to problem solve when these methods aren't producing the desired response.
Also unlike humans, horses do not have any preset standards of judgment. They react simply to what is happening and what they feel, not to any exterior front or label. Students quickly learn that the excuses and labels they constantly use in other areas of their life will only be met with our response of "tell that to the horse-he doesn't care." At the barn, everyone is on an equal playing field, where color, gender, learning disability, mental diagnosis, medication, etc. doesn't matter. Because of this, students are able to learn to truly be themselves-and enjoy this person!--for the first time in their lives.
Finally, much of the benefit of the horse lies in their ability to draw out the empathy and care of the students. Even students who struggle with human relationships generally develop a deep and meaningful relationship with the horse(s) they are working with. This relationship, like any other, must be maintained on a foundation of respect, trust, and patience, giving the student practice for forming and maintaining healthy relationships with people.
What skills do students learn from working with horses?
Horses often provide the best therapy for students, because they do not suffer from human fallibilities that a regular therapist must face. Horses are always honest, thus forcing students to become accountable for their actions. Students who refuse to admit responsibility of their problems will encounter many difficulties in working with a horse, suffering consequences naturally, not artificially. On the other hand, once students begin to admit their mistakes and search for ways to fix them, they are naturally rewarded by their equine partner. By working with horses, students learn to be accountable for their actions and feelings and the way these affect others.
Horses can also help students build important relationship skills. For most students, riding the horse is a huge issue of trust-they must be willing to trust the horse before they can be successful. This can bring up issues of trust that students are facing in their lives. Students who have been unwilling or unable to form positive, healthy relationships in their lives sometimes find their equine partner to be the first successful relationship they have ever had. This relationship can form a model for other relationships, teaching the student skills such as empathy and patience. As in a human relationship, successful riding and horse training require positive, healthy communication. Horses respond best to assertive body language and decisive cues, not the mixed signals that students often give. Eventually students learn that communication with the horse is two-sided, just as with people, and requires them to pay attention to what their equine partner is saying.
Horses are great teachers of anger management and patience. Working with a creature who does not speak the human language can be a very frustrating task. When working with horses, students are naturally rewarded when they are patient, and quickly find themselves becoming unsuccessful when getting frustrated or angry.
Finally, by working around horses, students build a great amount of confidence in themselves as they learn how to work through fear, work towards goals, and strive for success. Helping students be successful is a very large goal of our program. Learning how to be successful with horses gives students the confidence and skills they need to work towards goals in other areas of their lives. We have had a number of students whose school career was jump-started by their enthusiasm for horses. Many of our students have also commented that riding horses is the best high they have ever had since using drugs. Experiencing the natural high of riding and achieving can lead students to look for this natural high in other areas of their life, leading them away from drugs and other negative influences.
How often will students participate in the equine program?
The horse program is an integral part of the Ranch, and therefore all students are required to attend sessions at the barn regularly. As soon as students come to the Ranch, they begin to work with the horses. Orientation students (students who have just arrived at the Ranch) are required to learn safety, care, including feeding and grooming, as well as basic behavior and herd interaction and dynamics. Students participate in horse class with their teams two times a week for an hour and a half each time. Besides participating in the horse program as part of the experiential side of the school day, students also participate in team activities as well as individual and team based therapy groups with the horses.
Opportunities at the barn are unlimited. Once students reach a Greenhorn level at the Ranch and earn their saddle they are eligible to go on off campus trail rides each Friday. If students complete the first three equine modules and are caught up on their school work, they are allowed to take two or more horse classes, where they gain experience by helping other students or working with an untrained or “project” horse. Students may also attend extra classes and sessions at the barn if it is needed for their therapy.
Does my child need to have prior horse experience for the Aspen Ranch equine program to be effective?
Very few of our students actually enter the program with horse experience. Overall, about 50% of our students first approach the barn proclaiming to "hate" horses and want nothing to do with them, which is basically fear. By the time they leave the program, about 99% of our students love horses and can't get enough of them! We have found our program to be extremely successful with the inexperienced , as we are able to have a fresh start with them and easily shape the nature of their experience.
While many of our students enter the program having never even touched a horse, we also teach students with experience ranging from "riding Grandpa's horse on the farm," to showing competitively. The great thing about our program is its expanse and flexibility in that we are able to challenge even the most experienced rider, therefore forcing them to confront the same emotional issues that a beginner would face. We diversify our more secure rider's experiences by confronting them with young horse training, vaulting, jumping, trail rides on challenging terrain, and many other things. Students who enter our program with the attitude that they "know it all" and there is nothing else to learn are quickly confronted with the truth: there is always more to learn, more to gain, and more personal growth to be had.
