Research is showing that using horses provides extraordinary results in a wide range of physical and emotional therapies, as well as in emotional development and team building.  Results are so dramatic that insurance companies readily pay for equine therapies because they are more effective than conventional methods.

“Because horses react to body language, they give honest and immediate feedback to what people are communicating non-verbally. Clients learn that if they want to change the horse's behavior, they have to change their own behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. It is powerful because it is more than just talking, it is doing.”

1. Dr. Kay Trotter,  PhD
   

2. Licensed professional counselor
   
   

“[Researchers] have found that the hostile and defiant street-smarts of adolescents erode quickly in the presence of an assumed adversary (the horse) that the youth is unequipped to control or overthrow.  Such adolescents are invariably shocked as they begin to understand that openness and vulnerability are more likely to elicit positive behavior from the horse than are displays of aggression.”

    Dr. Karen Frewin

    The Australian Journal of  Counseling

    Psychology, 6, pp 13-17

    new_age_old_sage.pdf

“The experimental outcome of this study support that equine assisted counseling is an evidence-based

effective mental health treatment that demonstrated statistical, practical, and clinically significant changes in decreasing negative behaviors, while also increasing positive behaviors with at-risk children and adolescents.

    Dr. Kay Trotter,  PhD.

    International Conference on Education,   

    January 2006

    At-risk Children and Adolescents .pdf

Stride Ahead, Inc. is in the process of developing programs for DeKalb residents that take advantage of these remarkable benefits .