Individualized support through connection, experience, and life on the farm.
Private Equine-Assisted Learning & Wellbeing Sessions offer teens and adults a quieter, individualized way to engage with horses, other farm animals, practical activities, and life on the farm.
Sessions are experiential, strengths-focused, and built around the participant’s pace, interests, goals, and needs.
QUICK DETAILS
Ages 14+
Price $60 per session
Length Typically 45–60 minutes
Frequency Usually weekly or every other week
Enrollment is inquiry-only and based on availability and program fit. No previous horse experience is required.
These sessions are generally intended as an ongoing experience rather than a one-time visit.
A Different Way to Learn, Practice, and Connect
These sessions use real experiences rather than a classroom or clinical setting.
Participants may work with animals, learn practical skills, complete farm-based tasks, move through the environment, solve problems, try different approaches, and notice what they learn through the process.
The experience is individualized.
Some participants may want to build confidence or communication skills. Others may be navigating stress, loss, change, sensory differences, or difficult life experiences. Some may simply want a meaningful connection with animals, a practical hobby, or a quieter environment where they can build competence at their own pace.
No one needs to arrive with a diagnosis or a specific problem in order to participate.
What Might We Work On?
Possible areas of focus may include:
- Confidence
- Communication
- Trust
- Boundaries
- Emotional regulation
- Sensory regulation
- Coping skills
- Problem-solving
- Resilience
- Self-awareness
- Decision-making
- Connection
- Practical skills
- Competence
- Navigating difficult life experiences or transitions
These are possible areas of focus, not guaranteed outcomes.
What Might a Session Look Like?
Activities may vary depending on the participant, goals, animals, weather, and what is happening on the farm.
Possible activities may include:
- Grooming
- Groundwork
- Leading
- Observation
- Horsemanship activities
- Farm-based tasks
- Sensory experiences
- Problem-solving
- Animal care
- Movement
- Interaction with horses
- Interaction with other Hidden Pastures animals
- Mounted activities when appropriate
Riding is not required and is not the primary focus.
Connection Can Look Different for Everyone
Horses are an important part of Hidden Pastures, but they are not the only path to connection or learning.
Depending on the participant, sessions may also include interaction with goats, sheep, pigs, birds, or other Hidden Pastures animals.
The goal is not to force every experience to revolve around a horse.
Instead, the session is shaped around what is appropriate, useful, and meaningful for the participant.
Who May Benefit From This Format?
These sessions may be a good fit for teens and adults who:
- Benefit from hands-on learning
- Prefer quieter or individualized settings
- Feel more comfortable engaging through activities or animals
- Want to build confidence
- Want to practice communication or boundaries
- Want to strengthen coping or regulation skills
- Want to practice trust or problem-solving
- Want practical farm or horsemanship skills
- Want a meaningful hobby or connection with animals
- Are navigating stress, loss, transition, or difficult life experiences
- Have sensory, developmental, or communication differences
- Benefit from working at their own pace
Hidden Pastures may particularly serve veterans, first responders, survivors of difficult life experiences, and people with developmental or sensory differences.
Your Experience Belongs to You
Hidden Pastures does not assign meaning to someone’s experience or suggest that animals possess special insight into a participant’s emotions.
Participants are encouraged to notice, choose, experiment, step back, try again, establish boundaries, solve problems, and decide what feels useful.
The farm does not give people answers. It gives them a place to practice finding their own.
Educational, Experiential, and Wellbeing-Focused
Hidden Pastures provides educational, experiential, and wellbeing-focused services.
Private Equine-Assisted Learning & Wellbeing Sessions are not:
-
- Psychotherapy
- Counseling
- Medical treatment
- Diagnosis-based intervention
- Crisis services
Need-Based Assistance
Need help with the cost of private sessions?
We strongly encourage you to apply for assistance through the Hidden Pastures Access Fund. Cost should not automatically prevent someone from participating in an experience that may be a good fit.
Interested in Private Sessions?
Enrollment is based on availability and program fit.
If you would like to learn more about whether Private Equine-Assisted Learning & Wellbeing Sessions may be a good fit, contact Hidden Pastures to begin the conversation.