Our Programs

Horsepowered Healing programs meet you exactly where you are. Our programs exist to help meet the increasing demand for trauma-informed care in our high density military community and to address the needs of our first responders who are struggling with their trauma-rich work environments. Increasingly, programs which incorporate horses are sought out because of anecdotal evidence and ongoing research findings favoring the long-lasting and quicker response that individuals have to healing when horses partner with humans.

The programs of Horsepowered Healing provide educational and learning opportunities, healing and wellness half-day workshop-retreats, horsemanship instruction, riding lessons, individualized wellness and personal growth sessions, equine-facilitated coaching, and mental health therapy services. All programs and activities are tailored to address the trauma-based struggles of our military and first responder communities.

Educational and Learning

Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) workshops at Horsepowered Healing are uniquely designed half-day programs for veterans, active duty groups, and our first responder communities. Participants come together to focus on healing and discovery. Through hands-on experience with the horses, groups tackle therapeutic activities to identify roadblocks and areas of concern, or to challenge themselves through new learning opportunities. Because our workshops and retreats are a one-time experience, they are not meant to take the place of ongoing mental health therapy. Instead, they provide a respite from the stressors of life and allow us to enjoy nature while having fun and learning new things, as we glimpse into ourselves and those aspects of our life or behavior that we may want to address.

To ensure all participants receive the most customized retreat day, a free consultation with the Horsepowered Healing Team is required prior to scheduling. 

Horsemanship 101 is ten-session instructional package for those new to horses or those considering horse ownership. Veteran service members are able to take this course with a family member (age 10 or older). A new topic is introduced weekly culminating in a first ride experience, either Western or English style.

Wellness and Personal Development

Wellness activities provide customized opportunities for wellness, learning, and personal growth through fun and innovative ways as participants interact with each other and the horses while enjoying nature.

Back to Nature: Americans now spend an average of seven hours of screen time per day. With the distraction of social media, stressors of work and family life and the frenetic pace of our lives, it is important to periodically re-boot our systems. Nature and horses allow us to re-center, get grounded, and through peace, find clarity. Back to Nature provides opportunities for relaxation, stress reduction, self-awareness, and quiet reflection. Wellness practices such as breathing, mindfulness, self-care, positive affirmations, and rhythm activities, are incorporated into the day’s creative programming. Participants report that spending time with a horse in our peaceful, country setting is calming and that communing with nature and horses can often spark an “attitude of gratitude.”

Team Building with Horses are customized experiences which facilitate group cohesiveness and cooperation between co-workers or group members. Through challenges, participants move through the four stages of psychological group development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. All are encouraged to share their unique perspectives with feedback from the horses providing critical insights into leadership styles, personality traits, sources of conflict, communication effectiveness, behavioral triggers, and unrecognized strengths and weaknesses. Let our horse herd improve the teamwork with your human herd.

Recreation and Fitness

Connected Horsemanship is our trauma-informed , multi-level training program which celebrates the bond between the human and the horse. These courses transform a novice horse enthusiasts into a confident horse handler. By combining a solid, trusting relationship with horsemanship skills, to include riding, both horse and rider develop confidence through mastery. Focus areas include forming partnerships through earning trust and respect, communicating using the “language of the horse,” developing safe habits and handling skills, grooming and tacking, negotiating obstacles, and riding. For those not able or desiring to ride, training progresses to advanced equine ground school lessons to include confidence course training, round penning, and ground driving. As both the human and horse partners manage their emotions while being challenged, their partnership bond grows to new levels of satisfaction and enjoyment.

Adaptive Riding supports Veterans with limited mobility, strength, endurance, or other physical, cognitive, or learning challenges. Needed modifications are made to equipment, instruction, or teaching methods to meet the unique needs of each rider. An accessible ramp aides those with challenges mounting. With our Path Intl. Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor (CTRI), well-trained horse leaders, side walkers, and spotters, riders can enjoy the freedom to move about safely on horseback.

Pathfinders Riding Group is a therapeutic, social-recreational riding group for the more serious horse enthusiast. Pathfinder members have achieved a level of horsemanship and riding skill to safely negotiate the trails on the farm. Groups of three to six riders enjoy sharing time together, refining their riding skills, and bonding with their horses. Challenges on the trail include terrain changes, trail obstacles, water crossings, and bridges.

Please note there are competency, experience, medical, and physical guidelines which govern entry into Pathfinders.

Medical

Synchronized Riding involves pairing a horse and rider in order achieve physical, emotional, and spiritual harmony. By using a horse’s multidimensional movement, clients benefit from riding incorporated into mental health sessions with horses. The goals are to deepen the relationship between the participant and the horse, help the client become more self-aware of bodily sensations that may be shut down, and to facilitate greater presence in the moment. The goals are not to learn horsemanship or riding skills but instead, for the participant to become more in touch with themselves, with others, to include their horse partner, and to re-connect with their surrounding environment. A co-occurring benefit is increased balance and improved core strength.

Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) is a distinct approach to professional mental health treatment designed to empower clients through personal and physical experiences with horses. EAP sessions at Horsepowered Healing  address the mental health issues often experienced by our service members and first responders to include anxiety, depression, panic attacks, dysregulation, anger, isolation, shame, and withdrawal. Horses are incorporated into all sessions of EAP which are always facilitated by a team minimally consisting of a licensed mental health professional, and a certified equine specialist. 

Horsepowered Healing subscribes to the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association’s (EAGALA) model of therapy, which is ground-based (non-riding) and experiential. Sessions consist of facilitated therapeutic activities, with the horses providing nonjudgmental, honest, real-time feedback. Participants are afforded the time and space to interact with the horses, ponder their observations and experiences, gain key competencies, practice new ways of learning and responding, and reflect on how they might apply their self-discovered solutions to their own daily social interactions and life events.