Equine therapy solidifies

behavior adjustments.

How equine therapy and the Arbinger Principles can change lives

Equine therapy is but one of the many things that sets us apart as a therapeutic boarding school for troubled teens.  Our ranch wranglers, who are adept at adolescent psychology, teach them about accepting hard work; our psychologists, who counsel and mentor the behavior changes needed to adequately fit back into social settings; the teachers, who help troubled boys regain academic standing; and our understanding of the medical and psychological conditions that contribute to unacceptable behavior combine into successful behavioral changes.  However, at the top of the list—the approach that we are proudest of—is the success we achieve using equine therapy.

Equine therapy is for improving lives

Equine therapy has many applications.  It is noted for its improvement in the physically handicapped and disabled in teaching them how to find success in meeting their life challenges.  However, its applications in psychology show profound success at providing daily success, changing behavioral approaches to challenges, and putting out the fires of inflamed tempers and inappropriate social and family reactions. 

Horses can carry opportunities, too

The chief purpose of equine therapy is to give opportunities for young boys to enjoy successes in their daily lives in any setting.  Experiencing success helps them to rebuild self-esteem and self-confidence as well as self-discipline.

No one who yells ever wins an argument

We do not do drill sergeants.  We do not do physical discomfort.  We do not do negative reinforcement or punishment.  What we do is provide work and animal care challenges appropriate to our setting as a working horse ranch and high school.  Equine therapy is effective and demonstrates how certain learned, negative behaviors are ineffective. Young, hot-tempered boys get nowhere with a horse by yelling, pushing, shoving, or hitting. Once a young man can demonstrate to himself that persuasion is achievable through gentleness and kind deeds, he begins to realize that there are better ways than the ones they have been applying in their daily lives. What is more, the results are so much more satisfying. 

How to move hostile behavior toward cooperative behavior

Equine therapy demonstrates the practical application of non-violent behavior.  Coupled with education in positive behavior models, such as the Arbinger Principles, we can integrate and internalize that knowledge to bring about desired results in behavior patterns.  Our teachers, wranglers, and counselors are all schooled and adept in the application of The Arbinger Principles. 

The Arbinger Principles

Maybe you have heard of them, and maybe you haven't, but these seven principles provide a foundation for moving behavior from anger and violence to positive motivational action.  The principles were developed by the Arbinger Institute, which is a worldwide leader in training on self-deception and its solution.  The seven principles, greatly abbreviated here, are:

1. Every person has hopes, needs, cares, and fears.
2. Other person's hopes, needs, cares, and fears are less important than our own; we see others as objects rather than as people.
3. To see a fellow person as an inferior object is to harbor a violent heart toward them.
4. We communicate how we feel about others even when we try to hide it.
5. When others detect violence in our hearts, they tend to become defensive and to see us as objects. Violence in one heart provokes violence in others.
6. Most occasions of outward violence are manifestations of a prior, and often escalating, conflict between violent hearts; that provokes further violence.
7. Any effort to reduce outward violence will succeed only to the extent that it addresses the core problem—the problem of violent hearts.

The lessons learned and how a horse can demonstrate them

1.  My aggression will provoke your aggression, which in turn escalates my aggression. 
2.  You can change my behavior and reactions by changing your own. 
3.  You create your own behavioral problems.

Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the care and training of horses—equine therapy--where young boys can witness the positive effects of their behavior modification first hand, and to their immediate benefit.

Equine Therapy + Arbinger Principles = Better Lives

Would you like to see your son become a productive, hard-working, successful man?  Then it is time to seek help to get away from the spiral of bad behavior.  For your troubled teen, the home has become his comfort zone for bad behavior.  Moving on requires training in new thinking, but most of all, it will require a change in environment.  Visit us at The Arivaca Boys Ranch and find out how it is the quality, positive place to accomplish that goal.