Equine Therapy

Under the direction of Dennis Thompson and Jiri "George" Zitek, the Equine Therapy program provides an opportunity for the girls to see how they affect relationships in a unique way. The focus is on helping students develop, observe, and evaluate themselves by interacting with horses. Through working with the horses, the girls are able to enhance important life skills, such as positive communication, trust, honest achievement, value congruent behavior, and anger management. When students encounter a problem with a horse they are asked to approach the problem from the perspective of relationship, instead of just a horse problem. Students ask questions such as "What is the horse telling me? What part do I play in this problem? What can I do differently?" This approach helps our girls develop the invaluable proactive, self evaluation skills with the benefit of almost instant feedback from the horses.

As an integral part of the academy, all students get to participate in the Equine Therapy sessions for a minimum of three weeks, four days a week, each academic quarter. As soon as students come to the academy, they begin to work with the horses. Orientation students (students who have just arrived at the academy) are required to learn safety and care, including feeding and grooming, basic behavior and herd interaction, and dynamics. Besides participating in the horse program as part of the experiential side of the school day, students also participate in team activities, as well as individual and team based therapy groups with the horses.  This may include trail riding and arena work.

The program is specifically tailored to account for the student's riding level and previous experience with horses. Many of our students enter the program having never even touched a horse, but some have had extensive equine competition training. Our program is expanse and flexible, able to challenge even the most experienced rider; therefore, helping each girl through her relational obstacles regardless of her riding level. As students develop greater skills working with horses, they can participate in young horse training, vaulting, jumping, trail rides on challenging terrain, and many other things. Students quickly learn that there is always more to learn, more to gain, and more personal growth to be had.