Stable Days Youth Ranch

Since Stable Days Youth Ranch was established in 2011 as a 501(c)(3), our primary faith based mission has been to support and encourage youth down a path of personal development.   Our inclusive and COST FREE programs allows all kids, ages 5-17, including those who are healthy, those considered disadvantaged, disabled, or those labeled at-risk to experience the many benefits of adventure and equine based mentoring. 

We facilitate one-on-one weekly sessions using agriculture, art, adventure, gardening, nature, and, specifically, the nature of a horse to accomplish goals that are designed and set based on each child's unique life story.  Youth are supported and encouraged through the adventure and sometimes unpredictability of each session. 

Active involvement with moments of reflection and evaluation lead to intellectual, social, physical, spiritual, and emotional learning and development.  Encouragement is emphasized and participants have the freedom to make decisions, choices, and even mistakes as they discover unexpected friendships, new capabilities and an enthusiasm for life.  

Experiencing authentic peace and nurturing a heart of thankfulness, young people can move away from thoughts of disillusionment and  accept the freeing truth that life is often both good and hard.  

Our mentors are trained to affirm and mobilize the positive qualities and strengths in the youth they serve.  Each session includes a balance and inter-connection of work and play along with the multi-dimensional value of service to their peers and our community.  

Through our Share Garden, our participants have an opportunity to participate in supporting families in our community that have been identified as food insecure.  The ranch kiddos and volunteers prepare the gardens, plant, water, weed, harvest, eat, and share thousands of pounds of produce each year with those in need. 

The effectiveness of our program can be seen with the rise of self-esteem and the growing acceptance of personal value.  These two things in combination are needed to move the knowledge of the benefits of healthy choices into a belief system that is backed by action.  This is the key to empowering youth to avoid risky behaviors and focus on positive choices. 

We have a young boy in our program, we'll call him John, who suffers from the oftentimes crippling dual clinical diagnoses of depression and anxiety.  Making a decision, even a simple one, can be overwhelming for him and would often result in an emotional meltdown.  During his one-on-one sessions we purposed to create opportunities for him to first gain confidence and second be decisive.  We asked him to lead not only himself but to be a strong and kind leader to the horse he was assigned.  

The many successes that occurred over the course of the summer were as much due to the relationship he had developed with his horse as to the friendship that was nurtured with his mentor.  He learned new skills like how to harvest carrots in hard soil without breaking them and how to repair a fence that had been damaged by a herd of traveling deer, but the most significant development we witnessed was when he and his horse stepped into the round pen and without hesitation and with a great deal of confidence he directed his horse; he was able to choose, without fear, the plan for his session.

We received an email from his father a few weeks after that session.  "We can't thank you enough for what you do and the effect that it is having on John.  As you know in the past it's been a challenge to find anything he takes an interest in so it's been especially exciting to listen to him talk about 'his' ranch and 'his' horse.  You are doing amazing things out there and we are so happy to be a part of it. "

In addition to measuring our effectiveness by the development of our participants and the words of their caregivers, we have had an independent survey completed and compiled in cooperation with University of Mayville, School of Nursing, and Welcore.  Registered nurse and trained evaluator, Nancy Joyner, took the lead on this project, asking parents, social workers, and the Stable Days mentor staff to participate.  The results showed a 77% increase in our participants' leadership skills, a 79% decrease in anxiety, 82 % of our participants learned a new life skill, 86% had an increase in focus, 82% improved in cooperation, 87% improved in communication skills, and 91% improved in their social skills.  

It is our mission and greatest privilege to be able to work with young people, challenging them to lean into their full potential and helping develop them into community and family minded people who value love, life, faith and learning.

For more information visit us at stabledays.org.