Not Just A Pony Ride

Haley Sevalstad, the founder of Rising Free Retreats, is here to talk with us about her specialty, women’s retreats.  Haley shares her personal journey of getting out of the corporate race and back to a more authentic version of herself.  Her experiences have led her to the work she is doing now, helping women find peace in Bozeman, MT.   Episode 38. on Equine Gestalt Coaching with founder, Melisa...

HETRA University was presenting live on the road in Stillwater, Oklahoma at the PATH Region 8/ LSTEN Conference.  Listen in to hear Kaiti and Shelby discuss their presentations and other big themes in education that they saw while at conference.  Kaiti Otte shared Sensory and Behavior: Regulation in EAS and Shelby Schult presented Equine Strategic Planning.   Sensory Hand out at Patreon:   https:/...

Listen in to hear occupational therapist and CTRI, Kaiti Otte discuss the differences between ADHD and ADD including symptoms and difficulties that those with this diagnosis might experience.  She also explains what adaptations we can make in the arena in order to help our participants with ADHD be as successful as possible with their equine partners. Enjoy the “Learning Styles and Teaching Strate...

Hear Dr. Rebecca Bailey discuss the organization she founded, Polyvagal Equine Institute, and how it is helping people heal and connect through partnership with horses. Horses rely on their nervous systems to make sense of the world around them. By interacting with horses, we can experience nervous systems at work instantly as well as see the impact of two nervous systems connecting. By watching,...

 Listen in to hear how HETRA curates their brand including social media, presentations, images, website and more.  COO, Erin Bevington explains our detailed photo and social media policy and how HETRA ensures we are always putting our best foot forward when it comes to marketing. Get access to HETRA’s photo policies on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/notjustaponyride

For 20 years, Stable Strides Farm has been helping hundreds of adults and children. SSF was created to give riders with special needs a place to become competitive and effective horse people. Although competing is not a requirement, many of our riders enjoy going to horse shows with the hope of winning tangible awards.  Listen to hear Mandy Cleveland, Founder and Program Director at SSF share how...

Listen to hear Anne Hindery, CEO of the Nonprofit Association of the Midlands speak about resources for nonprofits.  She shares a WEALTH of information about what nonprofits should be working toward to stay current, thriving and sustainable.  Her organization, NAM is dedicated to just that, providing education, information, advocacy and collaboration where needed.  Truly their job is to make sure...

 A much requested episode on preparing our participants for the canter!  This episode is packed with perspective from Shelby Schult, CTRI and HETRA Program Manager and Italia Rouse of Royal T Training, a professional horse trainer in the Omaha area.  Listen in to hear about HETRA’s cantering checklist and how we help both our horse and rider prepare for this big step in horsemanship!  Get the cant...

Terri Hutchison, M.A., CCC-SLP is here to tell us all about Speech Therapy utilizing hippotherapy as a treatment strategy!  She has a private practice in California and partners with the Shea Center for Therapeutic Riding to offer her services.  She explains the benefits, challenges and potential skill areas that she can target while mounted!  Check out our brand new PATREON!   https://www.patreon...

Did you know that one of the first experiences of EAS was as a rehabilitation technique for Polio patients?  Dr. Octavia Brown shares the rich history of EAS including her early start in our grassroots industry as one of the founding members of NARHA, now known as PATH Intl.  Dr. Brown shares what she believes were pivotal moments in our industry’s history as well as challenges and places for futu...

Join Dr. Michele Pickel, creator of the impactful program, Horse Powered Reading®. She give us insight to the program including how it works, why it’s so successful and how you can get involved! Horse Powered Reading® integrates social-emotional learning with academics; thus allowing students see and experience reading with their entire mind, body and emotions by creating metaphors for the skills...

The podcast is Live from PATH International Region 7 Conference in Sherrard, Illinois!  We had so much fun learning, growing and networking last weekend. Listen in to hear what is new in education for the EAS industry and why conferences are such a great opportunity.  A packed episode with Kelly Kreiter Penning, the executive director at New Kingdom Trailriders, Dionne Newton, Chair of t...

Equine-Assisted Mental Health doesn’t have to be just ground sessions!  HETRA utilizes an unique co-facilitation model where our mental health providers, in partnership with a CTRI, utilize mounted sessions to maximize our participants'’ benefits. Listen in to hear Cassidy Fredrickson, CTRI and Kelly Baulisch, LMHP, discuss how they facilitate these sessions including some awesome activities they...

PART TWO:  If you haven’t tuned into the first part of this episode, go back and find episode 45 first.  If you’re back for part two you know just how good this episode is going to be. In this episode Dr. Olsen digs deeper into how to motivate our clients and how to manage and more importantly PREVENT meltdowns from happening. We know that those on the Autism Spectrum experience communication diff...

PART ONE:  We know that those on the Autism Spectrum experience communication differently.  Dr. Darren Olson, a clinical psychologist, is here to break down ways to improve that communication.  Listen in to hear tips on: giving directions, using visuals, simplifying speech, how to handle meltdowns, how to use motivators and much more! Go check out the Not Just a Pony Ride Facebook g...

A good budget really is a roadmap for success.  Edye and Erin have been working together for the last 20+ years to perfect the process of budgeting for the HETRA organization.  Listen in to hear about all of the factors that go into budgeting including cost per session and much much more. Get more information about HETRA mentoring here:  www. HETRAUniversity.org Submit topic suggest...

​​​Did you know you can get a degree in Therapeutic Horsemanship?  You can at St. Andrews University in North Carolina.  In this episode, Melisa Abbey, Director of the Therapeutic Horsemanship Program, discusses the traditional, 4 year, Liberal Arts degree that you can earn to learn how to be a therapeutic riding instructor.  The curriculum includes everything from disability educat...

Meet EAGALA, Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association!  In this episode, Amy Blossom, CEO of EAGALA and Brenda Hunter, Member Support Director talk about who EAGALA is and how their method of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy is so impactful.  Learn what this organization has to offer professionals and how to get certified! www.eagala.org

We have all had a participant that we think would benefit tremendously from equine-assisted services, but isn’t quite sure about interactions with a 1,200 lb live animal.  Together, Kaiti Otte an occupational therapist and Kelly Baulisch, a mental health practitioner, will discuss what potential triggers might be, how to work through them and how the process of working through change can be v...

Setting Weight Limits and Evaluating Back Soreness Shelby Schult is the Equine Operations Manager at HETRA and with an education in Equine Studies and a long history of horse experience, she is here to explain weight limits for horses.  Setting weight limits is a hot topic that can be very complicated, especially in the EAS realm.  In this episode you will learn how HETRA sets weight lim...

Ben Minden is the Founder of Bear Hug Cattle Company, based out of Manhattan, Montana.  He came on the show to explain his amazing program to us and give us some tips on working in vocational programs with veterans.  He speaks to how the horses help his participants and how he sees his guys grow from start to finish of the immersive and intensive 10-week program.  His organization i...

What can community foundations do for you? How do you get involved with a good foundation?  What are the ‘need to knows’ when it comes to requesting funding?  John Levy, President of the William and Scott Ruth Foundation is here to answer all of our questions! He gives some valuable advice from his experience as a foundation president and as a previous non-profit CEO. Listen now to hear...

Lucy Charvat, HETRA Grant Manager is here to help make the grant process less mysterious! Listen now to hear more on:  Finding Grants Applying for Grants The Art of Story Telling Grant Reporting and much more!

What the heck is Gestalt? Melisa Pearce, creator of the Equine Gestalt Coaching Method and founder of Touched By a Horse is here to explain it!  This form of mental health practice is completely different than anything we’ve talked about on the show before.  Melisa’s method truly uses horses as a coach to help clients become aware of their experiences and release emotional and physical e...

Networking for your business can be a little bit scary... Kalynn is here to take all your stress away! Networking allows you to spread the word about your mission in efforts to help educate the community and cultivate volunteers, participants and donors.  She gives us some awesome tips and tricks for successful networking within your communities and why we should all be planning and budgeting...