Hannah Stanley interviews Debra K Hirschberg about equine therapy. Find out how equine therapy works and the various programs that Hope Reins has.

Holiday festivities can be an important way to maintain family connections. But it can also be terrible if you are copng with grief during the holidays.. To misquote Forrest Gump, Christmas can “be like a box of chocolates” – you never know what you are going to get. You may be horribly disappointed when you expect a peppermint mocha kind of Christmas but instead end up with an empty box of chocolates– a sad and empty reminder of what was.

Do we offer a horse camp or a social skills camp? How about both! A social skills camp offers many benefits for children. Research shows that those who have better social skills and a higher EQ (emotional IQ) tend to do better at school, in friendships, and even in future jobs. Our social skills camp offers an experience that focuses on learning and practicing the social and emotional skills of Respect, Relationship Skills, Responsibility, Boundaries, Choices, and Consequences. We also teach and practice how to manage feelings using mindfulness and self-regulation skills. We do this all while working with horses!

After working on goals for a couple of weeks, it gets hard. We can feel stuck and frustrated with the goals we set. Whether it is to eat right and exercise, pay down debt or have better relationships, most people abandon their goal when it gets hard. We all know what the steps are yet we still struggling with follow through. Many of us don't not even set goals anymore. And many of us are left with negative thoughts about ourselves. We end up believing we can never succeed or that we are failures. Dr. Amen, a well known brain researcher calls these negative thoughts ANTs --Automatic Negative Thoughts.

Choosing a summer camp can be so hard. There are so many choices that it can be overwhelming. The choices abound— Art Camp, Science Camp, Horse Camp, and Faith Based camp, STEM camps. So how do you choose? First, ask yourself what does your child really need — consider these Top Ten Tips

Parents, remote learning or e-learning has started up and you have already been on a roller coaster of emotions. Your child is struggling to have their unique needs met in this new online world and you are overwhelmed and stretched thin. Come join us at Hope Reins for a FREE special on-the-ground horse experience with practical strategies from Nicole Schlechter Advocacy and Hope Reins . Our goal is to help you pause and take care of yourself while learning how to help your child do well in this new way learning. You won't just leave recharged with a new "bag of tools" you don't know how to use. As you spend time with the horses, you will be practicing how to implement those new tools so you can leave confident and effective.

Is your child or teen ready for a fun challenge? So many children and teens have struggled with social skills since the lockdown. There is more social anxiety and depression which has led to a lack of understanding of social skills.. Social skills are shown to be the more important than academic skills to to succeed in school and in life. So many children and teens struggle with following directions, staying off screens, understanding social situations, and protecting themselves from bullies.

If you’re like most people, you lead a busy life in an increasingly noisy world. As a result, you move quickly through your day, distracted and disconnected from yourself, those around you, and even God.

If you feel like peace can be hard to come by, or you’ve searched for lasting change but can’t make it stick, join us for a different type of faith and fitness challenge: Project Stress Relief.

Hope Reins led a team of educators on how to work with special needs students utilizing horses