Mentorship Program
Our mentorship program is where we began. We provide a safe environment for children to grow and develop character by partnering one leader, one horse, and one child each session. We believe this personal learning environment helps build up the child in all areas of life; physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. We recognize each child is unique and we at the ranch work to help with each individual's needs. We do all of this for every child from the age of 10 through 18, free of charge.
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Heart Ranch offers mentorship, ranch-style activities, healthy friendships and horse health involvement free of charge to the youth in our community. Our sessions are a conduit towards these goals. Although we aspire to help your child become a safer rider who understands and cares for horses, our main goal is not to produce “accomplished” riders. If this is your hope, we would be happy to recommend you several other venues for riding lessons.
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Requirements
Our program is FREE of charge to participants. The only requirement for children is that they have an open heart and a desire to attend. We accept all kids ages 10 through 18, and ask that all participants be able to take direction. There are NO referrals necessary! We recognize each child is unique and we at the ranch work to help with each individual's needs.
Our main priority is safety. For that reason, jeans and boots are required. We have a variety of boots that are available should your child not have their own riding boots (socks are required to borrow boots).
Parents/guardians are asked to rest and watch from our family area at the barn. We understand that we all have busy schedules but we really appreciate you being nearby to support your child.
Get Scheduled
If it's your first time wanting to come to the ranch, please email the ranch office at hope@heartranch.org , or call/text us at (808) 937-9717 to schedule a tour and/or an introduction meeting. Visits are by appointment only.
We have a waiting list to participate. New participants will be scheduled before the returning participants. Any participant wanting to return to a future term can do so. We will keep them on our participant roster, and rotate them in, as space is available. We also have occasional fill-ins available, sometimes at the last minute; to fill the space when a current participant is sick or if we have an extra leader available. If you want to be called for fill-ins simply give availability for days and times.
Sessions are for 90 minutes, one day a week, for a period of 6 weeks. Each period of 6 weeks is known as a term. We typically run 5 terms a year. Mentorship sessions are usually scheduled on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Session Components - The 90 Minutes
The Chore
There is never an ending to the chore list on a ranch! For the first 30 minutes, we team the mentor and child together to do a chore. This helps the mentor and child get to know each other and build rapport.
Meet Your Horse
The child and mentor pick out a horse to work with, and for this 30 minutes they spend time getting to know their horse and learning horse body language. Then we groom, and saddle up!
Horse Interaction
