Experience the Healing Power of the Horse
Healing with Horses Ranch provides multiple equine-assisted programs for people experiencing learning, behavioral, mental, and physical challenges.
While each lesson is unique, building the bond between the equine and the individual anchors everything we do. By modeling healthy forms of communication, choice, self-awareness, and acceptance, we help individuals develop new tools that can help them overcome challenges in the real world.
We also pride ourselves on ensuring all equine-assisted activities are rooted in research and science. Each of our evidence-based programs allows us to pinpoint and address an array of challenges and disabilities with a trauma-informed approach. We are constantly refining and reiterating on our treatment programs and setting a standard for the entire industry with the quality of our services.
Our Programs
Adaptive Riding
Through our Adaptive Riding program students with physical, cognitive, and emotional challenges improve independence and functional life skills all while learning to ride. The rhythmic, three-dimensional and symmetrical movement of the horse provides physical benefits, and the connection and communication with both the horse and the community of the ranch foster social skills, emotional management, self-awareness, sensory integration, language skills and more. It is a fun, safe, and social environment, centered around interaction with the horse.
Equine-Assisted Learning
Our Equine-Assisted Learning program is an experiential learning program that promotes the development of life skills for educational, professional and personal growth through equine-assisted activities. With a focus on at-risk individuals (including individuals managing trauma, dealing with mental health challenges, or navigating significant life changes), EAL creates an environment for creating new toolsets for individuals to overcome challenges in the day-to-day.
Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy
Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy is an interactive process in which a licensed mental health professional working with a PATH Certified Equine Specialist and suitable equine(s) to address psychotherapy goals set forth by the mental health professional and the client. These sessions can be individual sessions, group sessions, or family sessions that focus on various aspects of mental and psychological wellness
Unbridled Warriors
Our Unbridled Warrior program is a no-cost weekly group session utilizing strategies from our Adaptive Riding and Equine-Assisted Learning program to aid veterans, current service members, and first responders. Our Unbridled Warriors develop a bond of willing partnership through horsemanship and horseback riding that focuses on improving communication, reintegration techniques, and coping skills.
Who We Serve
Healing with Horses Ranch provides multiple equine-assisted programs for people experiencing learning, behavioral, mental, and physical challenges.
At-Risk Individuals (Children & Adolescents) | Resilience
At Healing with Horses Ranch, we use the power of the horse to build resilience in individuals who have suffered from emotional and physical harm, often leading to complicated challenges in their future.
For individuals who are particularly vulnerable to internal and external triggers, interactions with horses provide a non-competitive, non-judgmental setting to build their capacity, while providing the individuals with relationships that are both caring and consistent.
For this population, we focus on building self-awareness, enabling the individual to work through unexpressed emotional pain and learn how to recognize, verbalize and regulate their feelings. This is the imperative first step in the emotional recovery process and has improved psychological healing in remarkably short periods of time.
Veterans, Active Duty & First Responders | Transition
Many veterans return from active duty with physical and/or emotional wounds. Horses assist these individuals through the challenges of transitioning back to civilian life.
In the lessons, the bonding activities require the horse to look up to the rider for instruction and safety. As a result, the veteran focuses on their relationship with the horse by practicing a subtle form of communication that is based on sensitivity and patience. This type of bonding facilitates a quicker recovery or adaptation to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and related conditions.
Together, the horse and veteran work on relaxation, memory skills, patience, confidence, physical wellness, and focus that translates to life beyond the ranch.
People with Disabilities | Independence
Adaptive Riding lessons improve independence and functional life skills for riders with Down Syndrome, ADHD, Autism, Cerebral palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Spina Bifida, and many other disabilities.
Because horseback riding rhythmically moves the rider’s body in a manner similar to a human gait, riders with physical disabilities often improve in flexibility, balance, muscle strength, and range of motion. In addition, due to the non-verbal communication between a horse and human, individuals learn to be sensitive to other’s needs, heightening their social awareness.
Our program improves physical and cognitive skills that spark new independence within the rider that they can then carry over into everyday life.
Satellite Facility: Sage Recovery Center
Healing with Horses Ranch also provides equine-assisted services to individuals at Sage Recovery Center located in Manor, TX, just 5 minutes down the road from the Ranch. Sage Recovery & Wellness is a holistically-based mental health & substance use treatment center for adults and adolescents in the greater Austin area. Three of our horses currently live there full time.
Meet Our Herd
Healing with Horses Ranch is a PATH Intl. Premier Riding Center. Our certified instructors and equine specialists, all of whom are PATH-certified, believe deeply in the transformative power of the horse-human connection, and the ability for individuals from all backgrounds to improve their emotional, cognitive, and physical abilities.
A central part of our team is, of course, the horses – our true teachers. We partner with a variety of breeds, shapes, sizes, and personalities of horses to meet the needs of our riders.