Project H.O.P.E Equine Assisted Therapies

Project H.O.P.E. (Horses Opening People’s Eyes) Equine Assisted Therapies, Inc., a non-profit corporation located in Findlay and Bowling Green, represents the mission of improving the quality of life for people with emotional disabilities by offering innovative equestrian activities. Project H.O.P.E. was originally founded in 2003 by a private practice located in Findlay. Since that time, Project H.O.P.E. has provided over 5,000 contact hours to youth with a variety of emotional challenges including depression, anxiety, abuse, autism, anger management issues, low self-esteem, family conflict, ADHD, grief issues, social skill problems, and bullying.

Troubled children nationwide are reaping the benefits of equine therapy. More specifically, equine therapy is defined as the use of a horse to help children progress in treatment, particularly when traditional treatment modalities have failed. Originally, equine therapy was used to help individuals with physical problems, and is now being used internationally to also help with a variety of emotional problems. The result of equine therapy show that youth who were originally unable to experience physical and emotional closeness with other people due to a variety of trust issues have been able to develop closeness with the horse. The child-horse bond develops mutual trust, respect, affection, empathy, communication skills, and self-control. Additionally, the therapy involves using the skills of patience, understanding, attention, assertiveness, forgiveness and consistency; these are all highly important skills that all children need to be healthy adults. Finally, it is found that children who experience equine therapy will benefit in relationships with other people as well. Project H.O.P.E. provides a variety of equine assisted activities including psycho-educational programming in the schools, individual equine assisted psychotherapy, group therapy/camps, and parenting support. These services will all be implemented by this grant application to serve Hancock children.

Individual Counseling
Equine assisted psychotherapy involves equine activities set up and facilitated by a licensed mental health professional. At Project H.O.P.E., services are provided or supervised by Sandra Tebbe who is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, a Licensed Independent Chemical Dependency Counselor, and a certified therapeutic riding instructor with over 25 years of experience working with children, adolescents, and families. The program involves two types of therapies: Mounted (on the horse) and Unmounted (not on the horse).

Mounted activities include the therapist and child engaged in traditional talk therapy that processes feelings, challenges problem behaviors, and develops new coping strategies. This type of counseling occurs while the child is grooming and riding the horse. Research has indicated that children make more progress because they are motivated, want to participate in counseling due to the interactions with the horses, and feel more at ease to talk freely.

Unmounted therapy involves activities performed on the ground (rather than riding). Children are asked to perform tasks, to the best of their ability, that they do not know how to do and that are new to them. This is very effective with children who have a lack of confidence or anxiety about new things or change. By becoming successful at these activities with a 1200 to 2500 lb. animal, these same children can transfer their successes to other real life challenges they are facing. Both of these forms of therapy increase assertiveness that will help the child to effectively confront difficult life challenges such as bullying.