More than Just Playing With Horses

Equine Assisted Therapy is more than learning to ride a horse and cleaning up stalls. It offers students a chance learn about themselves and how they react to others. Students gain even more in group discussions where they draw parallels from working with horses to their own feelings, behaviors, and patterns.

While most students just think they're having fun, working with horses also helps students develop communication, leadership, teamwork, assertiveness, and problem solving skills. When students work with horses, feedback is immediate. Confidence and self-esteem grow as students internalize the powerful parallels they carry away from the ranch.

Video: Turnabout's Philosophy of Change

Watch 13 minutes of a real parent training seminar as our executive director Lee Caldwell brings about an amazing change in an untrained horse to illustrate how our treatment approach works. Watch Video

Clementine Farms

Turnabout student prepares to mount a horse

On a daily basis staff members bring a group of students the short drive to Clementine Farms where students get participate in equine therapy, ride horses, work, and have fun.

Daily activities include:

Cleaning stalls
Sweeping aisles
Grooming horses
Learning about horses
Learning how to ride
Training and “gentling” baby horses
Earning trust from horses
Watching and sometimes participating in veterinary procedures
Learning the language of one of natures most honest and genuine creatures
Learning how to communicate honestly, watch carefully, and listen quietly with the animals in their care

The powerful lessons students learn about relationships, trust, assertiveness, and caring while working with horses become valuable real-world skills in developing healthy relationships with family and friends.