MEDICINE HORSE PROJECT          

In addition to working with incarcerated men and women, we are offering our support in the form of financial assistance as well as consulting, to the Medicine Horse Program, an experiential, equine-assisted psychotherapeutic program for youth-at-risk and teens with emotional disturbances.  The program uses horses as a therapeutic tool to promote emotional growth and behavioral change.  According to the philosophy of Medicine Horse, learning to work effectively and safely with a one thousand pound animal requires patience, trust, compassion, mindfulness, awareness, and self confidence.  Horses do not lie, and through their body language, they communicate what is going on with the teen and reflect it back, thus breaking down defense systems quickly.  Horses become metaphors for life, attitudes and behaviors.   Developing patience, trust and self confidence in relationship to the  horses and being able to transfer these qualities to daily life is the therapeutic goal of this program.  

There is an additional and delightful benefit accomplished within this project.   Medicine Horse, through the Hope Foal™ Program, rescues foals that are destined for slaughter as waste products, victims of the Premarin drug industry.  The foals, neglected and ill, are handled and loved back to life by teen girls with issues such as suicidality, low self esteem, depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety.  The Ratna Foundation is providing scholarships for low-income teens to participate in this program, and plans to sponsor the expenses necessary for obtaining and supporting more Premarin foals in the future. 

In addition to the foals, mature horses have also become the recipients of rescue.  Mustangs (some of whom have been tamed and gentled by prison inmates in unrelated programs) as well as abused and malnourished horses obtained from rescue programs are also used in the Medicine Horse Programs.