Mental Health-Based Equine Therapy

Healing Reins

Healing Reins is dedicated to providing hope and emotional well-being through mental health-based equine therapy. We partner with highly experienced, licensed therapists and certified equine specialists to deliver the highest quality care for youth and families. Our mission is to assist children, youth, and families on their journey to emotional well-being by leveraging the therapeutic relationship between horse and human.

Our program promotes individual and family growth by fostering trust, enhancing verbal and non-verbal communication, and building critical life skills such as self-awareness, self-control, and coping strategies. Specifically tailored to meet the needs of foster and adopted youth as well as veterans, first responders, and their families, our trauma-informed approach provides a supportive environment that encourages healing and growth.

This unique 12-week program features a combination of on-the-ground and horseback activities. Rooted in mutual respect, confidentiality, and a spirit of hope, our treatment philosophy creates a safe and encouraging space for transformation. We are proud to be certified by EAGALA and OK Corral, ensuring that our programs adhere to the highest standards in equine-assisted psychotherapy.

Scholarships are available to help make this life-changing program accessible for those with financial need. For information about rates, scheduling, or scholarships, please email us.

Healing Reins is a wholly owned entity of Dogwood Ranch, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Healing Reins

Veteran/First Responder Program

Our military and first responders have always been an important part of our community here at Dogwood. Over the last few years, we have been fortunate to serve a few of those honored men and women through our Healing Reins Equine program. We have now expanded this program to include an additional equine team dedicated to serve this population with passion and relevant experience.

If you know of a current or former first responder or military veteran that could benefit from our services, please reach out at info@dogwoodranch.org.

Hear what people have to say

Reviews for Healing Reins

Through our Healing Reins program, we harness the power of horses to help foster youth and families overcome trauma, build trust, and develop emotional resilience. Guided by certified equine specialists, these sessions provide a calming and transformative experience that fosters personal growth and healing.

“I’m writing to tell you how much my foster daughter enjoyed her 12 week equine therapy program. She is 15 years old and has severe Reactive Attachment Disorder along with more diagnosis than any child should have. She also has Bi-polar, Schizophrenia, PTSD, ADHD, ODD, Conduct Disorder, Kleptomania, Disassociate Disorder and Enuresis. She has been in active therapy since she was a toddler. She hates traditional therapy and does not respond well. It makes my heart so happy to see her excited every week for equine therapy.

She does a fantastic job translating what she has learned each session into her real life. For instance she has learned that TRUST is the first step that must be learned between herself and her horse. She has learned to halter her horse, groom him, feed him, lead him and eventually she was ready to ride him.

When I asked her how she could compare trust to her own life, I could see a light turn on and she began realizing that she wasn’t allowing us as her parents to take care of her. She has never been able to let go and trust anyone to take care of her. Our daughter had 17 foster placements before the age of 5. We have had her ever since. Her behaviors were so severe that the foster parents kept giving her back.

Another great lesson along with trust is CONTROL. Once at therapy after a huge rainstorm, she haltered her horse but he would not walk through a small stream of water. She was in mud up to her ankles. She pulled and pushed and yelled, but no luck, he would not move. Her horse was in control. Ms. Kathy and Ms. Marcia helped her horse walk through the stream while she led him where ever she wanted to go. After deciding what activities that she wanted her horse to do, she realized that she was controlling a 1200 lb animal.

It is so very interesting to me how her horse can sense her behaviors. As soon as she would walk up to him, he would pace nervously around her. He would snort at her and run wild in the round pen. These lessons are HUGE for her. It will always be a work in progress during her lifetime. We are so fortunate to have been able to participate in your equine therapy. If your scholarship had not been available to us, we would not have been able to have the experience.”

“We have been doing equine assisted therapy for about 2 months with my 12 year old foster daughter. She comes from a background of abuse/neglect/sexual trauma starting at a very young age and continuing for many years before being removed from her environment. She was not talking about her trauma but was acting it out in her behaviors in the home and in social settings. She was using many behaviors to avoid her real issues and the pain. In equine therapy there were a series of activities she was requested to do. She could not engage in any of these activities. It soon became apparent that she was acting out her trauma in her interaction with the horses. As she began acting out this trauma in equine, she began talking about her trauma with appropriate adults.

She stopped avoiding the pain, but started working hard to confront and deal with it. As she continued acting out her trauma with the horses, she began connecting how her feelings/behaviors with others are connected to her feelings about earlier traumatic events in her life. My daughter has gone from not wanting to discuss past trauma or present problems to being able to talk about the past and willingness to problem solve in the present. She has gone from not being able to tell the truth at all to being able to be truthful a large percent of the time. She has gone from not being able to process correctly and logically most of time to having more mental stability. Working with the horses has given my daughter a safe environment to act out her trauma and given her a safe environment to start to heal!”



“I had no idea the effect that equine assisted therapy would have on me! I had spent the last 3 years in intensive personal counseling and thought that I had dealt with a great deal of my past trauma, experiences and pain, but something about having the process and method of the sessions, coupled with the horse’s presence unlocked a deeper part of my heart that I did not know was possible.

Dana and her team were so professional in the way they expertly handled the horse’s behavior and simultaneously fostered a safe environment for my heart to open up in and “feel” at a very deep level. Her team assisted in helping me observe and learn about the horse’s behavior and helped me relate that in a very applicable way back to my own life. This hands on environment allowed me to kinesthetically learn about how to connect to the world around me and helped me come to some powerful personal conclusions that I would not have otherwise.

For those who are “stuck” in the traditional counseling method and not seeing any progress or for those, like me, who have already had a lot of counseling, I would highly recommend equine assisted therapy as a powerful method to see deep and lasting change at a heart level.”