Juan Diez Rancheros is now a partner with Iowa Hospice providing the children's bereavement one day horse camps several times per year!
2011 Hug of the year award
Wilson Elementary School
Team Chiropractor
Dr. Liz McConnell
Our Program
JUAN DIEZ RANCHEROS is a Non-Profit Program offering opportunities for potential breakthroughs for kids and young adults that have been abused or traumatized emotionally. Sessions are structured with the use of rescued horses, and are free of charge to those already receiving counseling due to their situations. The unique qualities of the horse allow kids to get more in touch with those tender areas in their emotions, without the guarded walls they sometimes hide behind when talking with people. To read MORE... on this program description please visit our front page article in the QC Times.
Horses don't lie, deceive, or take advantage, and kids relate to the rescue horses and the suffering they have faced. The questions asked during the sessions have the ability to bring up new discoveries in their healing process, and their current counseling professionals and mentors can help expand on these new discoveries and apply them to their lives. The horses have the unique ability to mirror what is going on inside of the participant during the activities, and the privacy of the sessions allow for them to consider what the horse's behavior indicates about their beliefs and responses to situations. The participants learn the value of trust and responsibility for themselves and for others as the horses respond immediately to the shifts in the participant's approach or beliefs during the sessions.
Well she did it again!
Ashlyn Schmidt is one of those rare priceless jewels you have the honor of knowing only a few times in your life. For the past THREE years she has asked the guests of her birthday Parties to bring donations for our Non-Profit Horse Program, Juan Diez Rancheros, INSTEAD OF BIRTHDAY PRESENTS FOR HER!
She is only 8 this year so this all started when she was ONLY 6 YEARS OLD. Her parents assure me that this is all Ashlyn's idea each year, and this year she raised enough money to purchase this huge Horse Soccer Ball for us to use in our sessions with kids.
In addition to other various horse care items too. She never boasts or expects anything in return, she genuinely wants to give to our program and help our horses who daily help the troubled, abused, and traumatized children in our community. What an extraordinary display of self-less giving in such a young heart!
