Equine therapy helping to build confidence, teamwork among Indigenous youth and elders

The Miywasin Friendship Centre teamed up with the Dunmore Equestrian Centre to provide an equine therapy program for its youth and elders.

“With healing and reconciliation, a lot of our Indigenous people did lose our cultures and identities and just our ways of life so bringing the horses back into the youth’s lives and creating those relationships and that confidence is a really big step for our centre and our youth,” said Carlee Eagleplume, Youth Development Coordinator at Miywasin Friendship Centre.

She also saw this as a great opportunity to work on teamwork and problem-solving skills.

Day one focused on safety basics and building a connection with the horses while on days two and three, the youth and elders got to ride and participated in different activities.

The owner of the equine-assisted learning program, Prairie Instinct, is used to seeing huge improvements in people.

“Oftentimes when people have experiences with horses, it’s just getting on the horse and go,” Kenzie Schulze, who’s also a social worker, said. “Where my program is about building the connection with the horse, learning how to read body language and it really develops the relationship between the people as well as the horse.”

As the horsemanship and teamwork skills grow over the days, so do the smiles. A once scary thing for Rava is now fun.

“It’s a new experience for me and I can really trust her and it just makes me feel really good about myself,” Rava said.

Now, she can’t wait to ride again.

by Teagan Rasche

Equine therapy helping to build confidence, teamwork among Indigenous youth and elders

Our Community