CONNECTIONS EQUINE THERAPY PROGRAM

MISSION:

Connections Equine Therapy Program endeavors to provide a safe, supportive, loving environment for people and horses to bond, interact and relate to help create the opportunities for personal growth and empowerment, and for the purpose of learning individual coping skills.

AGENCY SELF-DESCRIPTION:

The Connections experience consists of a synergistic team comprised of horses, facilitators, volunteers and participants. Through its partnership with horses, this program has been successful in helping at-risk and disabled children, teens, and adults cope with challenges and grow stronger, both physically and emotionally. Scholarships are available based on sliding scale for both Therapeutic Riding and EAP.

Therapeutic Riding Program: This program provides opportunities for individuals with disabilities to realize their physical, cognitive, emotional and recreational goals, and is designed to promote, improve and normalize muscle tone and strength, balance, reflexes and motor planning, postural alignment, encourage sensory stimulation and integration, develop receptive and expressive language skills, encourage self confidence through structured risk-taking, and develop choice-making, goal-setting, sequencing and problem-solving skills.

Equine Assisted Therapy Program: The exposure of our psyches to a healthy, unfamiliar experience can create a precursor and catalyst for change. The concept for working with the horses is outlined as principles or tasks to encourage the participant to set personal goals, which may include the following; improve self esteem, develop trust in a safe environment, encourage socialization skills, develop choice-making and goal-setting skills, learn congruent communication skills, establish appropriate boundary-setting skills, promote pro-social attitudes through care giving, increase focus and attention span, and become mindful of the relationship of feelings to behaviors.  

Down Range: A new service for returning veterans to assist them in fitting back in to civilian life,  including community and family relationships. In practice, this also promotes improved family relationships and support as a parent returns from a long stressful deployment to a family that has been without that parent for a period.  Our Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Connections-Equine-Therapy-Program/