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“I had goosebumps,” says Helene Meloche, Families Learning Together coordinator.

Helene took participants of the FLT program horseback riding last week at MoonRise Farm in Taftsville, Vt. Watching their hesitant expressions turn into smiles of growing confidence was a reminder for Helene of the rewards of working in social services.

At MoonRise Farm, the women learned how to brush the animals, and then were encouraged to mount and ride around the ring independently at both the walk and the trot. After riding, they were taught the importance of caring for the animal by putting away the tack and grooming the horses a final time.

Most girls go through a horse stage during which the local barn becomes their second home. But many families in the Upper Valley don’t have the resources to commit to hobbies like horseback riding. When it’s difficult to find money for groceries, it’s impossible to find money for extracurricular activities, even for those pursuits – like horseback riding – that are understood to help young people establish healthy boundaries and improve self confidence.

Riding horses teaches something else: your actions have a direct effect on other people (or horses). When a rider is nervous, fearful, angry, or anxious, the horse knows and will adopt some of that fear as his own. When a rider can be calm, deliberate, and soothing, the horse is much more comfortable and will relax his ears, lower his head, take smoother steps, and sigh happily. Rarely do we encounter such immediate positive feedback in life!

“Paula is so quiet, very introverted, but she was smiling and whispering to her horse,” describes Helene, who admits to her own fear of large animals. “And Jane, I trusted her to lead me around on the horse, and then she trusted me to lead her.”

Helene suspects that this won’t be the last time they go horseback riding.