The value of horses in central Kentucky relates to much more than the prices they garner at auction or purses won at the racetrack. Many horses providing services to those in the commonwealth have never walked through a sales ring and weren’t born from racing royalty. Though these horses may never command seven-figure sales prices, their value to the people and programs they serve is priceless.
Many people are familiar with hippotherapy — where a horse’s natural movement is used to assist children and adults with physical and mental disorders. In recent years, recognition of the myriad ways horses can help humans has increased and equine-assisted programs have expanded. Horses are utilized for various equine-assisted therapies, an umbrella term encompassing a range of treatments designed to promote physical and mental health. Their usage in therapy includes:
Equine-assisted psychotherapy. (EAP). EAP often encompasses grooming and ground exercises (though it can also include riding) to address a person’s psychological issues. EAP focuses on allowing a person to process and discuss feelings and behaviors.
Equine assisted learning. (EAL). EAL utilizes horses to teach life skills in a hands-on environment. EAL has three main focuses: professional development, personal development and education.
Numerous equine organizations throughout the Bluegrass use horses to assist with human healing and growth. The field has gained so much interest that Asbury University recently introduced a new Equine Assisted Services major as part of its equine program. Here’s a look at three examples of therapeutic equine programs in the region:
Engage, Equine Assisted Services
Horses are incredibly perceptive and sensitive. As prey animals, their lives depend on their ability to read their environment and the nonverbal cues of other animals. Horses can read the emotions and moods of those around them and provide genuine feedback. Unlike humans, horses aren’t fooled by contradictory behaviors.
Engage, Equine Assisted Services in Smithfield, Kentucky, uses Saddlebred horses in an EAL setting. Serving Jefferson, Shelby, Henry, Oldham and surrounding countries, Engage o.ers relationship-based and connection-focused programs, says Jennifer Hegg, equine specialist and program co-founder.
Engage services are accessible to both children and adults, and payment is on a sliding scale. Engage has a licensed mental health professional who leads the equine-assisted psychotherapy sessions. Engage is focused on experiential treatments. “Feeling and doing allow you to internalize the therapy as you do it,” Hegg explained. “Traditional talk therapy is hard, but when you use nature or horses ... it’s incredibly effective.”
“Traditional talk therapy is hard, but when you use nature or horses … it’s incredibly effective.”
Hegg is also the founder of the American Saddlebred Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on adopting out American Saddlebreds that are relinquished to the organization, bought at auction or rescued. Hegg utilizes some of the foundation’s horses in Engage but notes using horses that will eventually be up for adoption can complicate matters.
“Once a client develops a relationship with a horse, you can’t take that horse away,” she said. Engage doesn’t accept donated horses, as Hegg is focused on the repurposing piece of the American Saddlebred Legacy Foundation. She estimates that it costs about $3,000 a year to keep each horse. All the horses in the Engage program are barefoot (they don’t wear shoes) and “easy keepers,” meaning they don’t need expensive medicines, tack or care.
Life Adventure Center
Situated on 575 acres in Versailles, the Life Adventure Center opened its doors in 2005, the result of a merger between the Cleveland Home and Estill County’s Life Adventure Camp. The nonprofit focuses specifically on “using outdoor adventure to transform lives a.ected by trauma and build more resilient people for a better world,” according to its mission statement. Resiliency is a key concept in all programs offered at the Life Adventure Center, said Equine Director Lauren Burke.
“We have seen many valuable intersections between the horses and teaching elements of resilience: confidence, connection, contribution, competence, collaboration, character, coping and control,” Burke said. “All of our programs involve these themes, as well as wellness, mindfulness and self-regulation.
“We avoid using the term ‘therapy’ to describe our activities since we are not providing diagnosis or treatment for individuals,” she said. “Instead, we focus on building skills and mental health wellness.”
Offering equine-assisted learning opportunities, the Life Adventure Center provides customized services to a variety of participants, including businesses looking for teambuilding and sports groups seeking team adventure experiences. Mission groups come from partner organizations like schools, nonprofits, residential programs and mentoring groups whose participants have experienced prior trauma, Burke said.
The mission of Life Adventure Center in Versailles is to use horses and “outdoor adventure to transform lives affected by trauma and build more resilient people for a better world.”
In 2022, the Life Adventure Center served 2,156 participants, 88% of whom were youth. The program includes 10 horses to serve its clients. The horses used are a variety of breeds, including a Quarter Horse, an Appaloosa, a Paint, an Appendix (Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse cross), and four draft or draft horse crosses. The Life Adventure Center owns five of the horses it uses and the rest are leased to the program.
An endowment covers much of the center’s overhead costs, of which about $40,000 a year is budgeted for horse care and equine facility maintenance. Grants, private donations and program service fees cover the remainder of the budget. Because of this, the Life Adventure can subsidize, in whole or in part, every nonprofit and school group it works with.
Justin’s Place
Located in Wilmore, Justin’s Place focuses solely on using horses to assist between 40 and 50 children weekly. The Stable Moments program offers Equine Assisted Learning and mentorship to children in foster and adoptive care. The Barn Buddies program provides therapeutic riding and recreational farm activities to children with autism and Down syndrome.
A young child enjoys some one-on-one time with an equine resident of Justin’s Place in Wilmore.
Justin’s Place utilizes about 12 horses in its lesson program, says Executive Director Allie Barnett. Ranging in age from 7 to 27, the horses are a variety of breeds, including Rocky Mountain, Quarter Horses, draft horses, Thoroughbreds, ponies and Paint horses.
Breed and age don’t matter much to the sta. at Justin’s Place. “The main thing that makes a great therapeutic horse is a grounded brain and a big heart,” Barnett said. “Our horses give so much of themselves in this work. They are not viewed as a tool we use but rather a sta. member or partner in our work.”
With this in mind, each horse’s needs and workload are carefully considered, Barnett said. Each horse has its own weekly schedule that includes training days, work days, rest days and horse appreciation days. On average, each horse works two to three days per week, assisting with two to four daily lessons.
Justin’s Place is a nonprofit funded through donations, fundraisers, grants and program fees. “Our participant’s families pay an hourly session fee that is well below the industry standard for riding lessons,” Barnett said. Scholarships are also available.
Almost half of the equine sta. at Justin’s Place are leased from private owners who need a different home or job for their horses (many horses at Justin’s Place are on their second or third careers). Several horses have been adopted from local adoption agencies.
The program also grows and bales its own hay, and some services (like massage therapy for the horses) are donated. With three full-time sta., it costs approximately $170 per hour to provide services at the facility. There are three part-time instructors, but the program primarily depends on its volunteer base, which includes between 50 and 60 people each week.