Misty Acres Farm

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Our Therapeutic Horsemanship program is structured as a 10-week mentorship program. In this Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) program, a mentor and Equine Specialist partner with our horses to provide a therapeutic environment in which to develop life skills and build stable relationships. Misty Acres Farm’s Program Horses are our partners in this program, allowing us to travel down the path of healing with our participants, together.

I traditionally offer a 10-week program. (I do have the option to do a 6-week program now as well.)

(Ten week program is $500 for the full program. 6-week program is $325.)

Each session is 50 minutes, and we’d do once a week for the 10-weeks.

We start out with goals for each participant: those can be life skills, and/or horsemanship goals. (Horsemanship goals often translate to life skills too.)

A few of the life skills we can focus on in the individualized goals include: patience, emotional awareness, self regulation, problem solving, creativity, confidence, perseverance, to name a few.

I’ll then tailor the activities and the program around those goals for each participant.

WHAT IS THERAPEUTIC HORSEMANSHIP?

Therapeutic Horsemanship is a term incorporating all kinds of therapeutic interaction with equines; from physical therapy and hippotherapy to mental health and leadership training, working with equines in a therapeutic environment can be a powerful tool. Therapeutic Horsemanship includes Equine-facilitated psychotherapy (EFP).

WHAT IS EFP?

Equine-facilitated psychotherapy (EFP) is an experiential form of psychotherapy that involves equines. PATH Intl. provides standards of professionalism and safety for people working in EFP.

EFP is defined as an interactive process in which a licensed mental health professional working with or as an appropriately credentialed equine professional partners with suitable equine(s) to address psychotherapy goals set forth by the mental health professional and the client.

WHAT IS THERAPEUTIC HORSEMANSHIP?

Therapeutic Horsemanship is a term incorporating all kinds of therapeutic interaction with equines; from physical therapy and hippotherapy to mental health and leadership training, working with horses in a therapeutic environment can be a powerful tool.

The Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl.), a federally-registered 501(c3) nonprofit, was formed in 1969 as the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association to promote equine-assisted activities and therapies (EAAT) for individuals with special needs. With nearly 4,800 certified instructors and equine specialists and 873 member centers, nearly 8.000 PATH Intl. members around the globe help almost 69,000 children and adults–including more than 6,700 veterans and active-duty military personnel–with physical, cognitive and emotional challenges find strength and independence through working with horses each year. (Source: PATH Intl.) In addition to commonly known Therapeutic Riding, PATH Intl. facilitates therapeutic equine-related activities, including but not limited to equine facilitated learning, ground work, stable management and more. More recently, programs offer services in human growth and development to serve wide-ranging audiences for such educational purposes as leadership training, team building and other human capacity enhancement skills for the workplace and for daily use.