Our Vision

Dueker Ranch has three primary goals:

§  To utilize the power of horse therapy to improve the physical, mental, and social health of children and adults with special needs.

§  To provide high quality horse therapy to all eligible special needs applicants at no charge.

§  To help participants develop the skills needed to ride a horse independently.

While traditional medical treatments often target one particular condition, horse therapy is more holistic, simultaneously addressing the physical, cognitive, affective, and social domains. The physical benefits of equine therapy include: improved balance and core strength, muscle revitalization, and increased mobility. 

Cognitively, participants enhance their listening skills, memory, and ability to communicate verbally and non-verbally. Affective benefits include increased self-confidence, assertiveness, and self-awareness.  Interacting with the horse, the riding coach, and the other members of the riding team provides an ideal low-risk, low-anxiety context for participants to practice and enhance their social skills. Finally, the non-verbal connection between the horse and the rider helps calm and heal the participant’s brain and can develop new pathways to facilitate enhanced physical, mental, and social function that exceeds - and, in some cases, defies- medical expectations.  In other words, horse therapy at Dueker Ranch can - and has- worked miracles.