Serenity Acres Family Ranch in Ardoise, N.S., specializes in equine-assisted learning (EAL) – a unique program where the horse is the teacher.
EAL promotes the development of healthy life skills for educational, professional and personal development through equine-assisted activities.
Among the activities at the Nova Scotia ranch is an obstacle course inside an indoor riding ring that contains instruction cards to follow.
"So, what will happen is the horses are tied off along the wall and they pick you based on your energy because they have a really cool energy radius where they can pick up on things like changes in heart rate, changes and increases in cortisone stress hormones," explains Kristy Falconer with Serenity Acres.
Falconer says, for those who feel uncomfortable around the large animals, the ranch works with people to help diminish that fear.
"The first thing we do is we actually talk about the body language and we clarify what a happy horse looks like, what an unhappy horse looks like, what an alert horse or a hyper vigilant horse looks like," says Falconer.
"And we talk about all of the cues that they give to us, because when we take them out of their world and we bring them into ours, they directly start to communicate with us as a member of their herd."
The ranch offers a full 12-week curriculum to help build life skills. It also offers individual EAL exercises that can be tailored to help participants overcome specific challenges.
"Some people think it's therapy, and there are equine therapies, but this is a lifeskills program," says Falconer. "As you're working with your horse asking for things, he's responding to the stimulus he receives from your body.”
More information on Serenity Acres and the programs it offers can be found online.
