The Thursday, March 3 meeting of the Kiwanis Club was off to a lively start as members of the club shared experiences involving their latest project; reading to the students at the middle and elementary schools in Madison County.
Following up that report, Mike Moore, a Kiwanis member and the Director of Operations at the Madison Youth Ranch, came to the front as the meeting’s key speaker.
Moore held his audience rapt with attention as he gave both an informative meeting as well as humorous accounting of his time working with the horses and informing his audience about the ranch and its goals.
Moore began by clarifying that, at Madison Youth Ranch, they do not do riding programs for the individuals they are serving at the ranch.
Moore explained that riding builds discipline and while some equine therapy programs do build that particular trait, such as the Wounded Warrior program, the Madison Youth Ranch is geared towards a softer approach.
Instead of building discipline, the goal set by the Madison Youth Ranch for their horses is for the animal to serve as a gentle nudge to opening up to the counselor and to revealing, to the person in counseling, parts of themselves that they had hidden.
“What a horse brings out in your character is amazing,” Moore stated.
That concept, in a brief sentence, seems to be the goal of the Madison Youth Ranch.
The meeting continued with Moore giving unnamed accounts of the ways the horses responded to various individuals who were under the care of the ranch and how the horse often became more than just an animal, but a transference of emotions and memories or even their own self.
As the meeting drew to an end, it was clear that it was beneficial for many of the people who came to the ranch. Working with an animal who has a will of its own, is not predictable and not influenced by human emotions helps those under the care of the ranch to open up to the counselor.
“A horse will test you,” Moore said. “It wants to know if you’re the boss or if they’re the boss.”
After Moore’s discussion, the Kiwanis heartily thanked and applauded him for his informative speech.
The meeting ended with plans for the Kiwanis Club to return to their meeting place at the Madison County Extension Office on Thursday, March 10.