THE HORSE CONNECTION INC.
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Mission Statement
Urban Stable empowers youth to positively engage in their education and community and achieve personal success through hands-on learning experiences with horses.
About This Cause
Urban Stable (The Horse Connection Inc.) was founded and became a registered non-profit charitable organization in 2001 (Charity#871051611RR0001) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The charity typically partners with 20+ schools within four School Divisions and community partners (e.g., St. Amant Centre) within Winnipeg and the surrounding communities. The primary purpose is to provide marginalized youth-at-risk in grades 5-8 with an experiential learning opportunity with horses that builds confidence and self-esteem which has proven to increase their engagement in school and their communities. In a typical year we serve 50-70 youth annually through our school, summer, leaders in training, and alumni programs. The alumni program targets grade 9-12 youth who have participated in the school program to continue their learning and growth in leadership, life, and work skills outside of school hours. Many of our students come from low income/underprivileged families and are referred to the program from our school and youth-serving community partners as a result of social, emotional, behavioural, neurological, or academic challenges they are facing. Students come from all walks of life, based on a variety of situations, backgrounds and/or diagnoses. Anxiety, depression, ADHD, FASD, autism spectrum disorder, OCD, ODD, cognitive challenges, learning disabilities, foster children, trauma, physical disabilities (e.g., mild cerebral palsy, chromosomal disorders) and family difficulties (e.g., loss of parent/sibling, divorce) are some of the unlimited reasons youth are referred to our program. Urban Stable is inclusive of all ethnicities and genders, with many of our students coming from newcomer, equity diverse, indigenous, BIPOC, and LGBTQ2S+ communities. Our mission is “to empower youth facing challenges to engage in their education and community and achieve personal success through hands-on learning experiences with horses.” At Urban Stable we empower youth to learn experientially from their horses (the real teachers) to develop critical life skills such as teamwork, communication, self-awareness, self-regulation, healthy boundaries, and confidence, and assist them in transferring these new skills and knowledge back to school, home, and their community. Many of our students have never seen a horse before or spent time outside of the city. We support positive connections between the youth in our program and their families, schools, peers, program staff, volunteers, horses and to the natural settings in which we do our work. We create an environment of acceptance, where youth and their families feel they belong and receive support to build trusting relationships with their horse, with peers and with others in their lives. In June 2021 Urban Stable reached twenty one years of operation. We started with two students and two horses back in 2001 and have grown the program year after year. We are proud of our success and the fact that over 700+ youth have benefitted from their time with Urban Stable. We have also created a very solid foundation in terms of our program design and delivery, administrative processes, staffing (all instructors are certified by the Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association), volunteers and relationships with the School Divisions and other partners. We have seen the benefits our program has provided to the youth who have been involved over the years and the impact this has had on their lives in school, in their families, and in their communities. Urban Stable provides safe and reliable student transportation from their school, to the program location, and back. Facilitated by certified instructors, each student has a one-on-one volunteer helper. Classes of four students attend at one time for 2-2.5 hour weekly classes that are spread out over the academic year, resulting in 24-30+ hours tuition a year. Students learn to groom, tack, lead and ride their horse, becoming more and more independent as the weeks progress. Although horsemanship skills, sport education, and physical well-being are gained, we focus on mindfulness, social-emotional learning and skill development, through deeper horse-human connections over a longer period. Students learn a new life skill (e.g., communication, leadership, teamwork) each week that is discussed as a group upon arrival, practiced in a game-like setting with their horse and teammates, and reinforced through a final group talk about their experiences before leaving. The instructors assist the students in making the connections and helping the students to transfer those vital life skills back to school, home, and their community. The benefits students gain from the program are diverse and long-lasting such as leadership, communication, relationship building, self-awareness, self-regulation, balance, coordination, and stability. These benefits are magnified when we invite their schoolteachers and parents for the program end celebration of their child’s achievements, as the horses in turn touch and impact their lives too. These positive connections and experiences made at Urban Stable ripple out reaching the student’s peers, their families, and their wider community. By being a part of supporting youth to attend our equine programs you are making a huge impact, not only in the lives of our students, but in their families, schools, and community, building stronger future generations. An impact that will last a lifetime. Participating at Urban Stable and working with their horse is life-changing for our students. They gain improved mental health and physical well-being from being in nature. Some of our students who have shown leadership qualities have gone on to join our Leaders in Training Program where they volunteer in the School Program assisting the younger students as volunteer Horse Handlers. The Leaders in Training Program provides students with further leadership, teaching, and work experience opportunities which can be discussed with schools and claimed by the students as volunteer credits. The students can continue to develop leadership and teamwork skills in the safe and stable environment of Urban Stable they have become familiar with. By hosting these work experience opportunities at the barn, the students feel safe to step outside their comfort zone, remove and lower the armour they wear at school every day, and become vulnerable to try new and difficult things. The Leaders in Training students have all the skills they need to be successful as they have already walked a similar path the younger students they are assisting are travelling. In a typical year programming costs are covered by program partners ~40%, grants ~45% and fundraising & donations ~15%. This funding model was impacted by COVID-19. Thankfully our funding partners provided additional grants that helped bridge the gap caused by revenue generation limitations the pandemic caused for our program partners and fundraising efforts. Pre-pandemic we were serving 50-70 youth a year. We were ready to grow further and will be ready again after carefully rebalancing and rebuilding program with support over the year. We truly believe youth need that calming connection and experiential learning with horses now more than ever.