Horsemanship

Adaptive Services & Equine Assisted Group Learning

Adaptive Horsemanship

Adaptive Horsemanship is a powerful outlet for children, teenagers, and adults with a wide variety of cognitive, emotional, physical, and developmental challenges. These challenges include autism to PTSD, depression to cerebral palsy, and everything in between. Our PATH Internationally certified instructor staff is well-equipped to help all individuals gain success and feel supported in our Adaptive Horsemanship classes – regardless of background or prior experience. Lesson plans are tailored to meet the physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral needs of the individual participant, with individual progress documented weekly. All participants are supported by trained volunteers who are an important part of the learning team. Our services are designed to help create a therapeutic environment for all participants, and to create a movement towards health and wholeness that lasts long past their class-time each week.

Social interaction, building relationships, and participation in group activities are all part of the process. Through the movement of the horse, participants strengthen fine and gross motor skill development, core strength, muscle tone, flexibility, balance, and coordination. Through the partnership with our dedicated volunteers and horses, participants gain confidence, trust, and emotional honesty, while improving communication and social skills.  Through appropriate sensory input, participants gain decision-making, problem-solving, task-sequencing, and critical thinking skills.

For more information, please visit our Horsemanship Information Packet.

Lesson Structure for a 1 hour Adaptive Horsemanship Lesson typically includes:

  • 15 minutes at lesson start time for grooming, connecting with your horse and mounting
  • 30 minutes of riding or ground work with instructor curriculum
  • 15 minutes to dismount, untack horses
Become a Participant

Please Note Healing Reins Does Not Currently Accept Insurance For Horsemanship Related Services (Adaptive Horsemanship, Recreational Horsemanship, Equine Assisted Learning, Heroes Horsemanship). Pricing for these services are offered at a fraction of the true costs to Healing Reins. We rely heavily on grants and donations to subsidize our services to make them affordable for all of our participant base.

Scholarship Assistance Program
At Healing Reins, we believe that no one should be denied an opportunity to participate in our programs because of financial need. If you wish to request scholarship assistance to pay for your tuition, please register as a participant first, and then visit our Scholarship Information & Application Page. You can also contact our Operations Team for more information or if you need more help.

Equine Assisted Learning

Equine-assisted learning (EAL) is an experiential learning approach that promotes the development of life skills for educational, professional, and personal goals through equine-assisted activities. Working with horses provides opportunities to teach critical life skills such as trust, respect, honesty, and communication. Horses use mostly non-vocal communication, relying on body language and social cues, and are in-tune with human behavior. This can help participants to better understand and learn how non-verbal communication might be impacting or influencing others in their lives.

Healing Reins is pleased to work with local agencies such as Cascade Crest Transitions, Rimrock Trails Adolescent Treatment Center, and New Leaf Academy to provide residential clients with the unique and transformational experience of working with horses. Weekly group work supports individual therapeutic goals for adolescents and young adults in treatment. Clients are paired with program horses and guided through therapeutic activities to build trust, self-awareness, healthy self-concept, and confidence.

If you are an agency interested in contracting with Healing Reins to offer your clients a unique equine-assisted learning experience, please contact our Operations Team or call us directly at 541-382-9410.

Meet our Healing
Herd of Horses

The equine members of our team are hugely important to us and are chosen very carefully. The ideal therapy horse is sound and unflappable, with a been-there-done-that attitude. Our herd members have had careers in dressage, high school equestrian teams, trail riding, ranch work, and more. Miles and experience add up to the quiet, assured horses our participants need.

Meet Them