The Horsemanship For Life Project
Supporting opportunities to learn and grow through relationships with horses.
Our Purpose
The Horsemanship for Life Project at Charitable Impact funds Canadian health, education and social service organizations to enable access to equine-assisted education programs for their adult and youth groups. Through grants and expertise, the Horsemanship For Life Project aims to provide underserved individuals and families with the opportunity for personal development through unique experiences with horses.
Qualified donees are paired with high-quality horse programs in their region, and funds are provided to cover the cost of program fees, as well as transportation and suitable clothing and footwear, if needed, for their classes and groups. Occasionally, we also support the equine-assisted services sector through funding for professional development, program delivery and research.
Horsemanship = Horses + Humans + Relationships
Frequently Asked Questions About Program Funding
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Known collectively as equine-assisted services, these programs include life skill building, personal development, mental health therapies, physical therapies and more. Carefully selected and specially trained horses and ponies are excellent partners in these programs because of their non-judgemental listening and communicating skills. Many, if not most, of these services do not include any riding. Rather, they involve activities such as building relationships with horses through touch and presence, working through fun challenges with horses as teammates, and observing natural horse behaviour in a herd. All programs are supported by highly trained and insured facilitators, teachers, coaches or licensed health professionals.
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Program fees are highly variable because many factors contribute to a farm's overhead costs, as well as the clients’ needs such as transportation.
The Horsemanship For Life Project provides up to $70.00 per person per 60-90 minute session. So, for example, to send 10 students to a 10 week program, we can provide up to $7000. This is generally enough to cover program fees and some additional costs. On occasion, volunteers, in-kind donations or additional funding may be needed to cover things like transportation, snacks, outerwear, etc. We can work with organizations to help remove barriers.
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Registered charities, such as schools and social service agencies, committed to providing high quality programming for their clients in need of support in areas including mental health, life skill learning, making connections and building relationships. Examples include BC School District 79 Cowichan Valley, the Victoria Brain Injury Society and Building Healthy Families Kelowna.
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At this time, we have funds available for access to the Cartier Farms model of Equine-Assisted Learning (EAL) at locations in Western Canada. The Cartier Farms model of EAL is a group experiential learning program for youth and adults. Programs are led by certified and experienced facilitators with horses as their partners in teaching essential life skills such as communication, teamwork and leadership through fun games and challenges. The program is based on a researched and proven curriculum that has been fine-tuned and kept current over almost twenty years. It can be delivered to people of just about all ages and abilities in weekly sessions, workshops or camps. There is no riding in the program.
Our member network includes small family farms and large equestrian facilities. Programs can take place outdoors or in indoor arenas. Every farm and facilitation team bring their own unique character to what they offer.
We are actively expanding our network to more areas of Canada, and more types of equine-assisted services, such as psychotherapy groups, will become eligible in the future.
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The Horsemanship For Life Project ensures that our grantees experience only the best opportunities with horses by pairing them with accredited members of our network. Member farms are carefully vetted for their commitment to outstanding program delivery, exceptional care for their equine partners, and sound business practices that contribute positively to their local communities.
About Us
The Horsemanship For Life Project was founded in 2021 by Jessica and Scott Lake and is advised by a team of professional facilitators, therapists and researchers who have varied experience and expertise with horses and in health, education and social services professions. Based at Heart Lake Farm on W̱SÁNEĆ Territory, Vancouver Island BC, the Project supports grantees across Canada.
