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