Matching Adolescents with Horses Breeds Impressive Results
By Meghan Vivo
What does a 1,200-pound creature that lives in a barn have in common with a 120-pound, rebellious teenager? A whole lot, according to the equine experts at Aspen Ranch, a co-ed, licensed residential treatment center for troubled teens in Utah.
In many ways, horses and adolescents are naturally suited to one another. According to Brandon Burr, the clinical director at Aspen Ranch, equine therapy is an ideal match for teens struggling with defiance, anger, low self-esteem, mood disorders, and other emotional and psychological issues.
"Horses, from the ages of 3 to 15, are about the equivalent of an adolescent 13 to 18 years old in terms of brain development and cognitive structure," he says. "Training horses can be a lot like raising teenagers. Even though the horse's cognitive structure will never advance beyond an adolescent's, and the teenager will grow into an adult with greater reasoning skills, the two can learn a lot from one another."
A Mutual Understanding
Working with an animal as large and strong-minded as a horse requires patience, trust, compassion, awareness, and self-confidence. It takes time and practice to develop these traits, and horses can be excellent teachers.
Like people, horses are social creatures with societal rules and interactions that are similar to human communities. Horses are full of personality, each with its own moods, preferences, and habits. Getting to know a horse's character is the start of developing a relationship that can be a strong catalyst for change. Because horses have unique personalities, teens gain practice in relating to various types of characters and adapting their own behavior to others.
As Brian Aurness, 18, who spent eight months at Aspen Ranch to deal with family problems, told Los Angeles Times writer Bob Pool, "I was skeptical at first. I thought horses were only to ride. But it's amazing how similar horses and humans are."
Young people also learn a great deal from horses' dissimilarities to people. Unlike us, horses are honest, non-judgmental, and straightforward. Horses communicate primarily through body language. Without the complication of words, students can learn how to break down barriers and communication blocks without resorting to lying, deceiving, or manipulating. They also gain an enhanced awareness of their own emotions and nonverbal cues, and how important nonverbal communication is in relationships.
Building Relationships, Resolving Issues
Bonding with a horse - an opportunity few teens will ever experience - is truly life-changing. For many teens, just being around horses satisfies a deep, emotional need for closeness and bonding. For young people with anger and trust issues, working with horses may be the first time they build a real, honest relationship with any other creature.
On top of the profound sense of connection teens feel with the horses, equine therapy also has a way of stirring up and helping to resolve deep-seated emotional and psychological issues. As students try to place a halter on their horse or guide the horse through a series of obstacles, issues such as anger management, frustration, control, and others can quickly rear up.
Teens resort to whatever coping mechanisms they are accustomed to using in stressful situations, which helps emotional issues rise to the surface more quickly than they would in an office therapy setting. Seeing the issues more quickly allows therapists to address those issues sooner and with greater impact.
"While working with horses, teens see resistive behaviors and get frustrated with the horse's unwillingness to listen and cooperate. Students want to have their horse respond to them and love them, and they don't understand why the horse is misbehaving," says Burr. "All of these emotions can be tied back into their lives and their relationships so that the students gain a new appreciation for how difficult it is to be a teacher and parent."
Cory VanFleet, a 16-year-old Los Angeles resident who completed an 11-month stay at Aspen Ranch to address family and drug problems, told the Los Angeles Times that horses have helped change his life.
"I was stubborn and impatient," VanFleet said. "I learned to observe rather than talk. You watch these horses and they'll tell you what you are doing wrong."
Learning Life's Lessons from a Horse
Equine therapy is about more than just riding horses. As students work with the horses, they are asked to relate the lessons they learned to their own lives. If the horse was particularly obstinate, the student will often see his own behaviors mirrored in the horse's responses. When the teen adopts the role of parent or teacher, he gains a stronger understanding of the frustration and anxiety the adults in his life have felt trying to raise him.
"There's such a sense of fear, wonder, and intimidation when a student is first introduced to horses," says Matt Pettit, a therapist at Aspen Ranch. "The interaction with the horse becomes a perfect parallel for how the student interacts with other people. If a student takes his emotions out on his horse, the horse will react with stubbornness and disobedience, which teaches teens that their behavior changes their environment drastically. Once they realize their actions and behaviors affect others, they realize they also have the power to change it by managing themselves differently."
The staff at Aspen Ranch truly believes in the work they do, which is part of what makes the ranch so effective in getting through to troubled teens. Students are matched strategically with horses that will provide the greatest learning opportunity. Young people who are highly oppositional and belligerent may be assigned to the ranch's wild mustangs. Teen girls who struggle with attachment issues or intense feelings of grief, loss, or isolation may begin working with debilitated or chronically ill horses in the ranch's hospice program. This way, the treatment program is tailored creatively to the particular needs of each adolescent.
Offering the Best in Equine Therapy
It requires training and expertise to prepare a horse to be an effective therapy animal. The horses at Aspen Ranch are trained to respond to specific cues and commands so that students with no horse savvy can safely ride them and interact with them in a meaningful way.
In most equine therapy programs, students work with licensed therapists and equine specialists to get the maximum benefit of working with the horses therapeutically. At Aspen Ranch, a new equine co-facilitated psychotherapy certification program ensures that both therapists and equine professionals are capable of helping students relate their experiences with the horses to everyday life.
"Our goal is for all of our staff to be dually qualified to provide all aspects of treatment to our students," says Burr. "That way, none of our professionals will be held back from making the maximum impact for lack of qualifications."
The Aspen Ranch certification program allows staff members and other participants to achieve three different levels of proficiency in equine psychotherapy: basic, proficient, and advanced.
"This is a very demanding process," states Burr. "It will take roughly two years of intensive study for our staff members to reach the second level. But when they are through, they will have attained an unmatched level of competency that better serves our families and the profession at large."
Situated on 160 acres of rolling hills in Loa, Utah, Aspen Ranch is set apart from other residential treatment centers for troubled teens by its renowned equine therapy program and focus on experiential learning. Founded on the core values of respect, responsibility, relationships, and integrity, Aspen Ranch is an ideal place for struggling teens to learn, grow, and develop bonds with both humans and horses that will change their perspective for life.
