May 16^th, 2008

Dear Horse Power Friends and Colleagues,

The entire Horse Power team sends you our greetings! We look forward to seeing you and hope that you will come by and visit us. We always love to greet our friends, former students and fellow therapeutic horsemanship compatriots. Do drop in!

We have had a most beautiful spring here at the farm. Horse Power lessons have gone off without a hitch. With the apple trees in blossom, all the gardens showing off their spring finery, the horses shedding out, and the rings raked & ready, it has been a wonderful season. It is my life’s joy to see the riders’ smiling faces, the drivers’ ability at the helm, and the vaulters’ courage as they try their moves without holding on or trying to stand up at the walk….It makes a ‘body glad’ to see the joy, teamwork and progress that the students’. I love seeing the families’ pride grow, the caregivers’ appreciation, our instructors and volunteers’ dedication…and, maybe, best of all, the dear, patient and generous horses….What a great way to spend one’s life! I hope you share the excitement of all that happens in your program!

The Horses and Healing” Symposium is just around the corner, beginning the first week of June. We hope YOU are coming!!!!! There is still time to sign up for one of more of the many offerings. We are so excited about the quality of speakers and the variety of presentations. We really do hope you will join us for a day or for the whole thing. We have made it most affordable and would love to chat with you via email or the phone to take your reservation. Our office number is 603-654-6308 or email Lauren at LaurenRiccio@yahoo.com We want YOU!!!

We would also like to announce that we are hosting a Ride, Drive and Walk-a-Thon on Saturday July 27^th. We are so excited about this fundraising event….We have generously been offered the use of NH’s newest state park which was formerly Temple Mountain. It has the most wonderful riding trails, all that are mown and beautifully maintained. Some of them are 10 feet wide as they used to be gentle cross country ski trails. We will be inviting lots of trail riding groups. We will also be leading a walk up the other side of Temple Mountain and along the Wapack Trail, with views of all three neighboring states. At the farm, we will be offering a lovely dirt road of 5 miles for carriages. For our campers, we will have a good wood’s trail and our Horse Power riders will do a smaller ride around the farm ….in short there is something for everyone. We hope to have a super turn out, ending with big Chicken BBQ complete with lots of prizes. We will have business sponsorships and shirts for all participants….Great fun for all and let’s hope we raise lots of money for our Horse Power students. If you are interested in receiving information, please call the office or email us at the number and address.

The Horse Power Instructor Training School is filling up nicely for the fall. We are currently taking applications and interviewing people. We continue to love the school and having our Instructor Training Candidates really get to ‘live and breathe’ therapeutic horsemanship from the ground up. The school has truly become part of the fabric of the farm. We have an excellent crop of new candidates for the fall but are still open to a couple more….so, if this is something you have always wanted to do, please take a look at our website and see the information we have for you. You are also welcome to call Kathy Wile, the Co-Director of the HPITS, at 603-654-6308 or email her at kathywile@horse-power.org We look forward to hearing from you.

Finally, we would like to announce a new weekend that we will be offering in the fall. It will be called “The THRIVERS Weekend”…..It will be on the weekend of September 26^th to the 28^th, beginning on Friday evening and ending after lunch on Sunday. We are very excited about this weekend as it is for those who deal with Chronic illness or pain….and their families. We are hoping that this weekend, the first of its kind here at the farm, will draw people who need the healing powers of the land, the farm animals and gardens, and the horses, of course. While this is not necessarily a riding weekend, people may ride or drive if able….It will be designed to be fun, refreshing, renewing and, we hope healing. It will have some ceremony and some teaching...all optional of course...We are just so excited to be offering this kind of event. We are working on raising money for the weekend…and will ask people to “pay as they are able”….meaning that no one should not come because of money or lack thereof! We would love to have you attend the weekend, come help, or spread the word to someone you know who might need this kind of weekend due to difficult health issues….Please email me if you are interested in any way at boomcdaniel@horse-power.org. We want this to happen and to be a joyous celebration of thriving despite adversity!!!!

So, I end as I began, by sending you good cheer and best wishes. We all hope you are prospering and enjoying your work. We hope to see you at one or more of the events of Horse Power. We can’t wait to welcome you!!! Until then, stay well.

Most warmly,

Isabella (Boo) McDaniel, M.Ed.
HP Founder and Executive Director

Happy Spring to YOU!

Dearest Horse Power Students, Friends and Colleagues,

It always makes my day to write this message to YOU!!! Just thinking of you and all the fun things we have done together over the years, makes me happy indeed. This update from Horse Power comes filled with all best wishes for you and your loved ones, two and four footed. I sincerely hope that your spring is ready to pounce with all good things….good work, good fun, good friends and good horses, not to mention dear family members. May everyone be thriving as this season of new birth and exciting beginnings arrives, slowly but surely!

New program -
"Earth Keepers" begins this spring

I am delighted to report that Horse Power is thriving. We just began our lesson program this week, despite rings full of snow and furry animal friends, but begin we did, and with gusto. Terri and her team of dedicated teachers and volunteers have gotten all the forms, lesson plans, riding rings, classrooms, tack and all 40 horses ready to begin their exciting adventure with their students. Whether they will be driving, riding, doing ground work, vaulting or serving as ‘visiting ambassadors of goodness’ to centers away from the farm, they are ready to shoulder their exciting responsibility and begin their awesome healing…
one spirit, one body, one mind at a time. How can I ever be so lucky to be a part of all that is so good in this world!?! We all invite you to come to visit and see the miracles happening in immense and tiny ways, every day, all day. It is a true honor for me to be a part of the creativity, hard work, commitment and professionalism of our staff and horses.

Horse Power classes begin
despite snow on the ground.

We are also eagerly into the third week of our Horse Power Instructor Training School. Despite wind, snow, muck and the cold, our three

Instructor Candidates have persevered and are beginning to prosper in their new roles. Coming for the three months from as far away as Calgary, Montana and Maryland, these ladies are most capable. They will evolve into fine instructors, with the field lucky to have them offering the many healing services of working with horses on the ground, riding them, driving them and vaulting with them. We would love to introduce them to you when you arrive. I know you will be impressed by their level of ability and commitment. These students will round out about 40 individuals, from as young as 18 to as seasoned as 63 who have graduated from the HP Instructor Training School over the past 6 years. Seeing the kinds of contributions that these people have brought to the field of Equine Facilitated Mental Health and Experiential Learning is moving indeed.

Perhaps most important of all, however, the Board, Advisory Council, Farm Advisors and staff have been hard at work on the Strategic and Succession Planning for the overall farm. This exciting work of planning for the long term success and continuation of the farm beyond myself as the Founder and Executive Director has been most important. It is my clear vision and abiding dream that this farm will continue on long after I am ‘pushing up daisies’ and smiling down from above. The work that happens here and the lives that are changed for the better is just too important to let it fade into the future without a solid, secure and financially sound plan. This work has begun in earnest and, I am proud to say, is making giant leaps and bounds.

We have a terrific Strategic Planning and Long Range Steering Committee in action. Staff members, consultants and stakeholders are all vitally involved in this essential work. We now have solid budgets, long range financial projections, business plans, a formal

Members of the Horse Power

Board Strategic Planning team

Strategic Plan, and an Annual Report all in place
for the world to see. These guide posts will keep us steadily making progress toward someday buying the farm from me so that it will become its own foundation whose mission is to continue the legacy
created over these last 37 years. It is work that is most worthwhile to do. I feel most gratified that so many people have stepped up to lend their excellent ideas and planning expertise. Together, we will forge a safe, vital and successful future for the farm. I invite you to be a part of this process should you have special talent to lend to the project. All of our materials are also available for your inspection and input. Just ask and yea shall receive! I am a great believer that a dedicated, informed team can accomplish anything. I know without a doubt that the future is bright and the farm is going to thrive long into the future.

Speaking of hope for the future, let me share a great story with you that just happened yesterday. We have a favorite 9 year old who comes to the summer riding camp at Pony Farm. This little girl and her delightful family have really found a place here at the farm. Her birthday is coming up and she made the decision on her own that she wants to have her 10 friends who are coming to her party give money to Horse Power instead of give her a birthday present. When something unbelievable comes up like this, it just gives total confirmation that kids today are terrific, the world is indeed a good place and we are on the right track here at the farm….So, let me introduce Shira…and her picture and her smile and her goodness….These money will be carefully used to help another child ride or to give a special pony some extra care that he needs to do his job in comfort. Shira, the world is truly a better place because you were born…..Happy Birthday from all of us around the world but especially from us at Horse Power! YOU move our souls!!!

ice…The picture you see here of the lodge with the snow bank covering the porch was taken by me on the morning that the Horses and Healing Symposium would have been had we notOn a larger scale, we are most excited to announce that the Horses and Healing Symposium is in its final planning stages. As you know,
we rescheduled it to the first week in June to avoid the huge snow and moved it….
Can you imagine trying to do a full blown conference with the
snow above people’s heads!







The lodge this winter - great reason to postpone Horses & Healing to June!



This Horses and Healing Symposium is one of the ‘crown jewels’ of Horse Power. It was created 17 years ago when no education was available whatsoever in the area of Equine Facilitated
Mental Health or Experiential Learning. NARHA, at the time, was devoted to the physical and cognitive challenges our riders face. Today, EFMHA and NARHA are thriving, thanks to excellent management and the important healing work that needs to be done. However, the Horses and Healing Symposium is still one of the important national educational events.

This Symposium features all the people in the country, under one roof, who are doing the cutting edge work. A power packed week of activities surely holds something significant for each of us as we educate ourselves to do this vital healing. Best of all, the entire event is hosted on a working therapeutic riding and general riding farm. Many if not all presentations include live horses, in a real setting, with real students….It is NOT a power point in a conference center in a city. This is our niche…your opportunity to see the work come alive in a safe, inviting, encouraging and healthy way.

With this cutting edge, “think tank” mentality and power packed programming, the Horses and Healing Symposium also features the best of networking and relaxing. With comfortable on site lodging and meals, the ambiance is ripe for meeting people, while the price can’t be beat. Strolling around the farm and inhaling the richness of this way of life will convince even the biggest skeptic that horses do heal….Join us for a morning or for several days and see why we say that the Horses and Healing Symposium is the place to come to recharge YOUR batteries and reenergize your mind….

We can not wait to meet you for the first time and make you feel like ‘one of us’. We also can not wait to learn and grow by your side. The sky is the limit as to all that can happen in this fabulous avocation we have chosen. We have much to do and little time in which to do it. The need is great but the abilities are greater, particularly when we stand together to meet the challenge. Don’t be a stranger here. We can not wait to greet you with open arms.

Most respectfully and with glee,

Isabella (Boo) McDaniel, M.Ed.
Founder & Executive Director

Hope your New Year has started off well!!!

January 10th, 2008

Dear Friends in Therapeutic Horsemanship,

Happy New Year to each of you!!! What a pleasure it has been for me to have so many of you be in touch over the holidays. The cards, presents, calls and emails came pouring in, much to my heart’s delight. Wow, what a terrific life I have with such a great family and so many wonderful friends, near and far! I am one lucky lady for sure.

I can not remember ever being as excited about the start of any new year. I can not wait to do all the fantastic things we have planned for 2008. I know it is going to be a banner year at Horse Power. We have such a strong and dedicated staff, with the right person for each job. We have the best horses we have ever had. The farm is looking terrific, thanks to our Farm Manager, Corey, and his trusty crew. Best of all, Kris is doing a sensational job as the General Manager, running all the day to day operations. I finally have time to do all the future planning and organizational work that is so critical to the smooth operation of the farm. I truly believe that all the strategic and financial planning that we have done is truly making a difference! A huge thank you is due to all our board members, advisory council folks and farm advisors. Together , it is a truly remarkable team of which I am proud to be a member!

We are just about to begin our Horse Power 10 Day Intensive. We have an excellent roster of attendees and faculty. We are sure to learn a lot while having a good time with each other. The notebooks are ready, filled with in depth materials from all the speakers. We can not wait to greet everyone and get started. This is one of my favorite educational offerings we do at Horse Power. Kathy, the Associate Director of the Horse Power Instructor Training School, has done a great job pulling together the Intensive. The whole staff is joining her in continuing to recruit for our upcoming 3 month course. Be sure to go into our web site and see all the schedules, faculty bios and information about this course. We are proud of both schools. We feel that people experience a truly professional and through training in both programs. Help us spread the word about it all.

We have already begun our Horse Power Winter Lesson Series. A number of hearty souls have decided to brave the weather to ride with us this winter. This week blessed us with 50 and 60 degree weather so we have been pretty lucky!

The whole teaching team and our new Program Committee with many board & community members serving is hard at work organizing an expanded Horse Power Spring Lesson Program. Thanks to active fundraising and generous donations, we will be able to welcome several new groups. Terri, our excellent HP Program Director, is hard at work pulling all of the lessons together. If you or someone you love would like to be a part of our lesson program, be sure to give Terri a call to reserve your spot.

Best of all, we are pleased to announce that we will be offering Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy at Horse Power for the first time ever. We will be welcoming two psychotherapists to our staff. Clients will be able to use their health insurance to help cover the cost of therapy and riding. We will be announcing many more details in the next Blog as planning progresses. We are thrilled to finally be able to offer EFP and round out the services Horse Power provides.

The other exciting new thing that we have developed is a series of Adult Riding & Driving Get Away Weekends in 2008. These weekends are in response to requests from so many people. These weekends will provide two different types of services…One is to totally relax, rejuvenate, recharge….With massage, trail rides, active lessons, nice wine and a comfy bed, people can leave the cares of home behind, including dishes, phoning, emails and work. We will offer yoga, wellness coaching, yummy food and great camaraderie. We can even take an all day Picnic Ride or Drive down the scenic lanes surrounding the farm. The other service these weekends can provide is professional development. Many NARHA instructors, who want to bone up their riding or driving, have asked us to offer a weekend of lessons. They are tired of never getting to ride or drive themselves. Many people have also requested that we work with them to help them pass their NARHA Riding or Driving Certification. What a perfect way to get away from it all and get in some good lessons, too. We hope you will spread the word and bring some friends to these weekends! See the web site for details.

The other big piece of news is that we have decided to move the “Horses & Healing Symposium” to June. We are tired of snow, sleet and no power. We want people to come to the farm during the time of year when the flowers are blooming, the grass is green and the airplanes will fly. The new dates are June 5th through the 7th with a business pre-conference for “How to Start a Therapeutic Horsemanship Program” from June 2nd to the 4th. We will also be hosting a NARHA Registered On Site Workshop and Certification before the conference. Look in your mailbox for your “Call for Papers”. We are going to make this the best conference we have ever held right here at Horse Power. Best of all, we will be doing lots of hands-on presentations with actual students. Join us to watch the magic happening with real people!

I hope you are beginning to see why I am so excited about the start of 2008. Horse Power is strong and clear and in excellent shape. The entire team joins me in hoping that you will not be a stranger here in 2008. We are eager to welcome you to the farm and share our mutual love of people, horse and the countryside!

Most sincerely,

Isabella (Boo) McDaniel, M.Ed
HP Founder & Executive Director
NARHA & CHA Master Instructor
NARHA Driving Instructor, Level 2