The focus of EAL is not riding or horsemanship. In fact, EAL takes place "out of the saddle" and on the ground.

Beaver Creek Ranch and Horse Centre’s Certified Equine-Assisted Learning Specialists provide an opportunity for learning to take place.

Participants engage in team emphasized exercises and find themselves learning valuable skills in a safe, fun and exciting atmosphere while working with horses. Horses in this program are powerful teaching tools; they immediately respond to what the participant is doing. As facilitators, we are trained to look for those teachable moments that the horses identify. Quite simply the horse does the teaching; facilitators are there to offer the explanation and provide guidance. This coupled with the critical daily debriefing component seeks to bridge the gap between exercises in the arena and “real life”.

Read about all Equine Assisted Learning Programs

Why Horses?

Equine-assisted learning (EAL) is and emerging field in which horses are used as an instrument for personal growth and learning.

The single most asked question is, “why are horses used? “ Horses are extremely sensitive, aware of their surroundings and quick to react. For their mere survival, a wild horse, must constantly be on guard, through herd training they gain trust and respect. Nature provides them with instincts and senses that are very acute. They watch for the slightest movement and look for threatening body posture.

Horses know how to discern the difference between a calm non-threatening approach and anxious, nervous energy. However, every horse is different just as each person is unique.

To understand how this process works we must first realize how horses learn and understand their own rules of survival. In a horse’s world, the rules are clear, easy to understand and dealt with swiftly if challenged. By realizing this about horses we can alter our teaching techniques to become more efficient. Horses look for strong leadership and are willing to follow after they find trust and respect.

If we provide contradictory behavior they start to question and challenge our authority to lead. Horses respect the stringent outline of the hierarchy.

The head mare rules the herd, the stallion protects the herd from danger. The head mare and stallion work together as a team for the safety and strength of the herd. The entire herd works together to teach their offspring the rules of survival. In a horse’s world, team work is expected and respected.

Horses respond favorably to positive stimulus even though the consequences are swift and immediate. Horses respect fair consequences then crave to be with you.

Horses are tough and steadfast dance partners and if we (as facilitators) are willing to listen, they can assist us with guiding groups to becoming better individuals. Horses don’t judge, but they don’t forget either. They don’t let you cheat and their feed back is honest and instant.

Learning to listen to what horses have to say is powerful and can sometimes spur the answer to individual change. By including horses in specially designed educational experiences, equine-assisted specialists have greatly multiplied the participant’s rate of success to self discovery. How? Horses can magnify and mirror an individual’s problem immediately, and provide the skilled facilitator with an opportunity to identify an individual’s character. Horses can’t over think a participant’s motive and horses can’t manipulate their behavior. But by their intuitive nature and innate sensitivity, horses can provide facilitators with a window into the participant’s personality. As facilitators listen to a horse’s non-verbal communication, together they have the ability to walk participants through to finding life-altering change.

Through the discovery of how sensitive horses are, how kind and forgiving they can be; we can guide our participants through to becoming better individuals by recognizing those teachable moments, through identifying specific horse behaviors.

If you can understand how and why horses are aware of our every movement you will come to understand how this program works.

Quite simply, equine-assisted learning, works.

Meet the Team

BRENDA CLEMENS is a certified Equine-Assisted Specialist, a talented facilitator at the Equine-Assisted Learning Centre located at the Beaver Creek Ranch and Horse Centre where she and her husband, Barry, ranch in the beautiful Lumsden Valley, in Saskatchewan. While partnering in the 80 head, cow/calf operation; the past thirty years she has spend hundreds of hours mastering her horsemanship skills while training horses and coaching riders. Brenda's career started by obtaining a diploma in Livestock Production that has allowed her numerous opportunities to observe the unique characteristics and amazing power of the horse. Brenda currently holds her: NCCP Coaching Level 1 English, NCCP Coaching Level 2 Western, Level 1 Eagala, and a Certified NCCP Level 1 Equine-Assisted Learning Specialist.

LISA LARSEN is also a certified Equine-Assisted Specialist and talented facilitator, working together with Brenda at the Equine-Assisted Learning Centre located at the Beaver Creek Ranch and Horse Centre. Lisa and her husband, Len own and operate a ranch near Rouleau, Saskatchewan where they run 1000 head of sheep and 45 head of cows and practice holistic management. Lisa fluently speaks both English and French and currently holds a certificate in Secretarial/Accounting, NCCP English Instructor Program and a Certified NCCP Level 1 Equine-Assisted Learning Specialist.