Frequently Asked Questions

 Equine Assisted Therapy is offered by a licensed professional counselor or therapist, and the horse is “assisting” in the therapeutic component. Therapy is meant to tackle past traumas and mental illnesses. 

Equine Assisted Activities and Equine Assisted Coaching can be recommended to complement traditional talk therapy, but they are NOT therapy in and of themselves. Equine Assisted Activities and coaching are provided by an experienced equine assisted life coach, and the focus is on improving life skills for the present and future. The coach facilitates the partnership between human and horse to help the client reach their self-stated goals.

This depends on your program. 

If you are meeting as a private client looking for equine-assisted life coaching, you will meet with one of our coaches to discuss your personal goals through a series of questions.  You will meet the horses and spend some time with them while you and your coach further define your needs. You'll leave with a schedule of sessions and a "plan of attack".

If you are part of a yoga, school, or riding group, your first session will begin by meeting your  guide or coach, learning horse safety, body language and non-verbal communications, then meeting the horses.  You will then move into the bulk of your session and participate in the activity. 

 No. While we do offer riding lessons and mounted activities (homeschool program, yoga and balance therapies for example), our equine assisted activities and horse-centered programs including our day retreats, Leadership and Team-building programs, holiday events, Girls Night Out, and Veteran's programs are on-the-ground horse interactions.  

 Yes! To keep our horses healthy and free of injury which keeps our riders safe as well, we only allow a maximum weight of 185lbs on our horses and 150lbs on our ponies. We also reserve the right to refuse anyone regardless of weight if we feel they are not physically fit enough to mount and/or ride a horse. We may offer these individuals cart driving as an alternative. Safety to horse and rider are our priority.

Jeans, closed toe shoes, preferably boots, and a top that covers your torso. Dress for the weather as we offer our programming outdoors or in an unheated barn. Don't wear scented lotions -SPF included - or perfumes.  Horses are sensitive to smells, and bees, flies, and wasps are attracted to sweet smells.  

Restrooms are available. Ample parking is provided. We offer water bottles for every program. Some retreats include snacks or meals. You can find this information under each specific retreat.

Most of our retreats are required to be paid when reserving your spot. You do this through the webpage. For classes and programs that don't require pre-payment, we accept cash or check at the time of service. 

Riding is offered, but it IS NOT the focal point of the program. This program is designed to teach school topics such as math, science, and literacy in a farm setting. Kids learn how  to put their math and science skills to every day problem solving using measurements, weights, budgeting, percentages, and basic adding,/subtracting and multiplying/dividing among other things. Kids learn about health and nutrition of horses, genetics, anatomy, and general care. 

Riding is a component of physical fitness and is typically offered 4 of the 8 weeks of each program for ten to twenty minutes per student each of those weeks. 

For those expecting a full riding lesson, this isn't possible in a two hour time frame with a class of 5-10 students. Riding lessons are one hour long and we only offer them to single or maximum a pairs of riders.  If you're looking for riding lessons, contact us about scheduling them privately. 

Programming is year round. We have many activities that we offer that can be performed inside the barn as well as in the pastures and outdoor riding ring. We have activities that are specifically winter activities as well, including sledding with the horses. We only close for severe weather that closes our local schools due to unsafe road conditions. 

We don't believe they are expensive. Programming costs pay for certified, accredited, and licensed staff and instructors, hours of curriculum development, electricity, supplies, insurance, facilities, and horse care.  As a nonprofit, we ask for donations and grants to off-set the costs of all our programming, which allows us to offer programs and lessons at a lower cost than most private facilities.

Here is a breakdown of some of our programming costs.

Homeschool Program - 16 hours of programming costs $225.  This equals  $14.06 per hour of hands-on experiential learning. 

Summer Camp: 15 hours of programming costs $300. This equals $20 per hour including lunch, drinks, snacks, art instruction and supplies, and horsemanship and riding experience.

Homestead Field Trips: 2 hours of programming costs $10 per guest for groups of 6 or more. This equals $5 per hour for each guest. **Riding is not included in a field trip. We aren't a dude ranch or trail riding facility.**