Riding Beyond opens its next small group sessions in September
By Cameron Aalto, Ashland.news
Offering free four-week sessions, Riding Beyond provides support to breast cancer survivors and those impacted by the Alameda Fire and COVID-19 through “powerful interactions with (their) specially trained horses.”
The next session begins Sept. 3 or 4 with four weekly three-hour sessions every Tuesday or Wednesday, starting at 9 a.m. at Little Creek Ranch on Siskiyou Boulevard in Ashland.
The sessions will include opportunities of touch, movement, exercises for the mind and brain, strength and balance, bonding and mindfulness. These opportunities are enhanced by the presence of horses that create a unique relationship with each participant that, according to their website, result in “life-changing benefits of a heart-to-heart relationship with horses.”
Asked what makes Riding Beyond an important resource, founder, director, and lead instructor Trish Broersma said, “It provides a way through. It provides a … force of wisdom within your own self and body, and that’s just something that a lot of people don’t know how to find.”
More info
For more information, go to the Riding Beyond website at ridingbeyond.org
Registration is required for participation. To register, call 541-482-6210 or email ridingbeyond@gmail.com.
Want to help?
Volunteer training will take place from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 24, at Little Creek Ranch in Ashland. Call Cheryl Therkelsen at 541-941-7806 to register for the volunteer training.
Riding Beyond also offers meditations every week. Broersma says, “we just do it on Thursdays, but the idea is that it becomes a practice, and then you start discovering that there’s a part of you which can observe your reactions in stressful situations. When you start recognizing and giving credence to that most high consciousness, then you have the ability to make much more wise and complex decisions.”
Along with 80 programs around the United States, Riding Beyond was accepted for the national Seen Through Horses Campaign, which has helped raise $350,000 nationally. The campaign took place in May in celebration of Mental Health Awareness Month.
Additionally, the nonprofit received the 2023 ShareCare Award for the film “All About Riding Beyond” by Robin Miller.
Riding Beyond offers free spring and fall sessions, sessions for the general public on Saturday mornings (May through September), and weekly meditation circles throughout the year.
One participant explained their experience at Riding Beyond in a quote posted on the nonprofit’s website, saying, “I have chronic pain as a result of my mastectomy which has not responded to medical interventions. As I became acquainted with the horses at Riding Beyond, I found myself crying in the middle of a gentle but powerful time with Mystic. That day was the first time I had a pain-free time for over two hours. I was amazed.”
Ashland.news intern Cameron Aalto is a recent graduate of Southern Oregon University. Email him at aaltoc@sou.edu.
Aug. 19: Start time of weekly sessions corrected (9, not 8, a.m.). Information added about volunteer training session.
