Horses have captivated humans for centuries. They are elegant creatures with a powerful stature, dynamic speed, keen intelligence, and an ability to be so accurately sensitive and intuitive to human emotions. Over the last few decades, equine-assisted activities have become one of the most recognized recreational activities. Research has shown that engaging and partnering with horses in equine-related activities can have a significant positive effect on a human’s physical, mental and emotional health.
Southern Strides offers a variety of programs that allows our clients to interact with our herd. Our team consists of counselors, equine specialists, and instructors that can carefully construct a program and set of goals that are uniquely designed to meet the needs of our clients.
Southern Strides offers the following equine services:
- Equine Facilitated Learning
- Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
- Operation Southern Strides
- Recreational Adaptive Horsemanship
- Mighty Max and Friends Program
- Southern Strides Readers
- Corporate Team Building
Proud Provider Of The Step Up For Students Program
Equine Assisted Activities
Equine Facilitated Learning
Equine Facilitated Learning is an experiential learning approach that focuses on developing life skills, learning emotional intelligence, and strengthening relationships through proper communication dynamics. While partnering with our horses in non-riding activities, participants gain insight into their own lives through self-discovery. In equine assisted sessions, participants learn horsemanship skills and how to interact with our herd. Horses communicate primarily using non-verbal language that can provide instant feedback to the participant about their energy and behavior. This horse-human interaction can help participants have a better understanding of their behavior and how it affects their relationships with others. As clients are learning from our herd, our team of specialists educates clients on how to implement the knowledge they gain into their lives.
Our equine facilitated learning program has a strong focus on improving emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and relational concepts through learning strong communication dynamics. Communication is a complex process that is continuously evolving. The dynamics of communication does not just involve what is said, but include the how’s, the what’s, the why’s and the context of a conversation. Many factors affect how messages are sent, received, interpreted, and also in developing a response. A strong communication skill set is essential for building connections, resolving conflicts, and achieving situational understanding in order to have healthy personal and professional relationships.
Benefits include:
- Deeper Understanding of Self Awareness and Emotional Intelligence
- Enhance Awareness of Others
- Improved Self-Esteem, Self Discipline, and Confidence
- Setting Boundaries and Increased Awareness
- Develop Problem Solving Skills
- Learn Respect, Integrity, and Responsibility
- Improve Verbal and Nonverbal Communication
- Development of Trust and Understanding Forgiveness
- Conflict Resolution Skills
- Leadership Skills
- Creative Thinking and Adaptability
- And Much More.
All focus points listed to the left can be explored through:
- Individual, Couples and Family Equine Assisted Learning
- Individual, Couples and Family Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
- Group Sessions
- Workshops
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy is the combination of horses, a licensed mental health therapist, and an equine specialist working with clients to address an individual’s psychotherapy treatment goals. This approach allows clients to participate in activities with the horses while processing their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. EAP sessions provide a safe space for clients to be challenged in hopes of breaking down barriers and changing dysfunctional patterns. There are a variety of issues that are discussed in an EAP session for an individual or family. Some common issues include:
- Post Traumatic Stress
- Anxiety and Depression
- Anger
- Boundaries
- Communication
- Trust
- Sadness and Grief
- Social Issues
- Separation
- And Much More.
Our team strives to help our clients explore their mental health needs, develop a treatment plan, and assist them in achieving their goal.
Faith Based Options
We offer all our equine services with a faith-based option if our clients prefer. Our team designs an individualized program for each client to meet their goals that can include biblical studies and references. The Southern Strides team consists of Associate Pastors and Prayer Counselors that are available upon request.
Operation Southern Strides
Our program Operation Southern Strides is specifically designed for veterans, active military, first responders, and their families. Southern Strides was created to provide services to those struggling with Post Traumatic Stress as a result of their service. Our goal is for our clients to partner with our equines and learns coping skills for stress, anxiety, and depression. As prey animals, horses are very intuitive and sensitive to human emotions and behavior. Through observation, groundwork, and riding exercises, our clients learn how horses interact with each other. This provides a foundation for our clients to apply what they have learned and examine how their behaviors affect themselves and their relationships with others. Horses have a special gift of providing feedback through their behavior to our clients that can give insight into their emotional distress. Through partnering and interacting with our horses, our clients discover things about themselves that they might not have learned without this type of feedback. The ultimate goal for our clients is they learn how to move forward with life, finding their natural balance after trauma, one steady stride at a time.
Focus Points of the Operation Southern Strides Program:
- Re-Integration Process
- Coping Skills for Post Traumatic Stress
- Building Relationships Through Improved Communication
- Self-Acceptance
- Battle Techniques Against Anxiety and Depression
- Grief Process
- Counseling and Education For Family Members
All focus points listed to the left can be explored through:
- Individual, Couples and Family Equine Assisted Learning
- Individual, Couples and Family Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
- Group Sessions
- Workshops
Recreational Adaptive Horsemanship
How Adaptive Horsemanship Works
Learning horsemanship skills can be physically and mentally challenging, but the rewards are endless. Recreational Adaptive Horsemanship sessions include learning groundwork training with the horses while meeting health goals. Groundwork training helps clients improve balance, muscle strength, hand-eye coordination, flexibility, cardiovascular endurance, and much more. The groundwork training prepares the client for mounted activities.
Clients with physical disabilities often show improvement in fine motor skills, positive sensory stimulation, flexibility, decreased spasticity, balance, muscle strength, mobility, and coordination. Beyond the physical benefits of adaptive horsemanship, the psychological gain is equally rewarding. Participants increase their confidence, learn to overcome fear, learn responsibility, improve self-control and patience, as well as improve their overall sense of well-being. Horsemanship training requires clients to keep control of their horse and their body, which increases their self-esteem and sense of achievement as they advance their skill level. The goal of our program is to design a plan that challenges our clients so they can meet their individual goals, but more importantly, have fun!
Mighty Max and Friends Program
Our Mighty Max and Friends program was developed for clients who are looking to participate in equine-assisted activities but want to work with miniature horses. Most are familiar with dogs working as therapy animals, but more recently miniature horses are being trained for this purpose. Miniature horses are very effective in helping people with disabilities, the elderly, but especially children. They are usually not any taller than 34 inches and generally weigh 150 to 250 pounds. Miniature horses are very affectionate, extremely intelligent, and are easy to train. Their small size makes them less intimidating to children and clients who may fear working with larger animals. Although miniature horses can be ridden, they are typically used for companionship.
Inspiration for the program
Maximus aka “Max” is the inspiration behind the Mighty Max and Friends Program that was created in 2019. Max was small, at only 24 inches tall, but he truly was mighty. After Max arrived at Southern Strides, it didn’t take long for him to show his full potential at increasing his students’ confidence levels. He has worked with students who struggle with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and trust issues. Max was happy to work teaching students horsemanship skills as well as just hanging in the barn being groomed and petted. He had friends that are a part of his program- Billy, the Donkey, Thom the cat, and Rooster the Boxer.. All of Max’s friends enjoy being a part of his program. Unfortunately, in early 2023, Max passed away leaving many hearts broken, but touched forever by his personality, sense of humor and love.
In Memory Of Max
Southern Strides Readers
Southern Strides offers an exciting program for children ages 5-13 that helps children find joy while improving their reading skills. Reading can be a magical experience, but for many children, it can be very frustrating which can result in a lack of confidence. There are a variety of reasons that lead to difficulty with reading and comprehension including depression, anxiety, ADHD, trauma, and many more with all resulting in feelings of embarrassment and shame. Many times these feelings lead to children becoming withdrawn, distant from family and peers, decrease school performance, and behavioral changes. Ultimately, the struggles with literacy in early childhood can affect their success throughout life.
At Southern Strides, we address challenges with literacy by partnering with horses in a creative environment that encourages children to interact with the horses while improving their reading skills. Horses are social, interactive and nonjudgmental creatures that offer a safe, comforting presence to a timid reader in a world that can seem unbalanced and often cruel. When children are provided a learning environment that is exciting, shame free, and rich in experiential learning, they begin to build their confidence, expand their knowledge and learn how to conquer their own barriers.
Corporate Team Building
Equine Assisted Learning is at the cutting edge of leadership training, team building, and corporate development in America. Being an effective leader in the corporate world today requires a unique set of skills. Southern Strides has designed a program to help participants develop important transferable skills needed to encourage individuals to work together for positive results. The goal of our program is to foster critical thinking, uncover barriers to productivity, improve team unity, and inspire participants to achieve their professional potential. Participants will be immersed in a whole-body learning experience with the horses where they will develop, and apply relationship, and life skills, and reflect on their teamwork abilities. In essence, working with horses provides an opportunity to define or reinforce their place in the larger corporate culture as well as bring out the best in ourselves, each other, and the team.
What To Expect
In Equine Assisted Learning (EAL), our team works in partnership with our horses as co-facilitators in the learning process for human emotional growth, learning, and change. Horses are very much like humans in that they are social animals that build relationships within their community, known as a herd. Like humans, they have different personalities, attitudes, and moods that affect their relationship with other horses in their herd. As prey animals, horses are always seeking a confident and trustworthy leader to provide safety. This survival skill equips horses with the ability to recognize leadership qualities in humans and provide a powerful view of how human leadership skills and teamwork measure up. Horses are the ultimate experts in understanding the unspoken conversation behind every interaction and behavior. In EAL, participants work with the horses to form a connection based on clear communication and trust. This requires our clients to actively engage physically, mentally, and psychologically. Horses are sensitive to behavior changes and intuitive to emotions providing an opportunity for a metaphorical style learning experience for our participants to see how their behavior and responses affect their personal relationships. This powerful style of learning provides instant feedback that can be transferred and applied to life experiences and work environments. With guided reflection by our team, EAL allows individuals to learn about themselves and others through self-discovery by participating in the activities. These activities help identify feelings, behaviors, and difficult patterns that may be affecting the individual or their team. Our team strives to provide a learning experience that is memorable, but most importantly, that our clients HAVE FUN!
Topics Discussed In Our Program:
- Leadership Skills
- Communication
- Decision Making
- Problem Solving
- Stress Management
- Conflict Resolution
- Much More