Morning Star Ranch... A shared dream... A dream to touch children's lives through engagement in the western lifestyle. A faith-based riding center focused on loving and blessing children in our community ages 4-12. A safe place where they can learn life skills by opening their hearts to horses.
Opening Date: September 1, 2020
Program is open to at-risk or disadvantaged children ages 4-12. Participation in the program is done either through referral (teacher, counselor, pastor, etc.) or by application (caregiver calls or applies online). There is no fee or cost for participating in our faith-based riding program.
This ministry uses Equine Facilitated Learning. What is EFL?
Equine Facilitated learning (EFL) is an experiential learning an experiential learning program that promotes the development of life skills for educational, professional and personal growth through equine-assisted activities. With a focus on disadvantaged and at-risk children, EFL creates an environment for creating new toolsets for children to overcome challenges in the day-to-day.
In an EFL setting, the experiential approach integrates equine-human interaction that is guided by a planned learning experience to meet the identified goals or desires of the participant(s). Working with equines provides opportunities to teach critical life skills such as trust, respect, honesty and communication. Equines use mostly non-vocal communication and are in-tune with human behavior. This can help participants to better understand and learn how our non-verbal communication might be impacting or influencing others in their lives. Equines ask people to be aware of their surroundings at all times.
Through interactions with the equines, participants learn a heightened self-awareness. Self-awareness is important in order to reveal patterns of behavior and gives participants the opportunity to think in a new way. Furthermore, participants gain self-esteem and self-confidence while learning how to work with such a large and powerful creature. In all, equines provide us with a way to see our internal landscape and modes of operation exposed. They offer us the opportunity to experience humility, compassion and challenge - all critical elements to supporting self-growth and self-awareness.
Program Goals: