Equine Assisted Therapy is an important part of the treatment approach at Turnabout/Stillwater Academy.

Equine Assisted Therapy is more than learning to ride a horse and cleaning up stalls. Students learn about themselves and others by participating in activities with the horses and then processing feelings, behaviors, and patterns.

By focusing on building holistic relationships with the horses, Equine Assisted Therapy helps students develop communication, leadership, teamwork, assertiveness, and problem solving skills. When students work with horses, feedback is immediate. Confidence and self-esteem grow as students internalize the powerful parallels they carry away from the ranch.

Clementine Farms

Turnabout/Stillwater Academy has partnered with Clementine Farms to provide students and their families an effective and unique treatment approach. On a daily basis staff members bring a select group of students the short fifteen minute drive to Clementine Farms to participate in the daily activities of ranch life.

Daily activities include:

• Cleaning stalls
• Sweeping aisles
• Grooming horses
• Learning about horses
• Learning how to ride
• Training and “gentling” baby horses
• Earning trust from horses
• Watching and sometimes participating in veterinary procedures
• Learning the language of one of natures most honest and genuine creatures
• Learning how to communicate honestly, watch carefully, and listen quietly with the animals in their care

The powerful lessons students learn about relationships, trust, assertiveness, and caring while working with horses become valuable real-world skills in developing healthy relationships with family and friends.

Video: How Turnabout Helps Teenagers

Watch scenes from a parent training seminar as Turnabout's executive director Lee Caldwell uses an untrained horse to illustrate how Turnabout's treatment approach helps teenagers. Watch Video