Saddle of Love

Saddle of Love has openings for EMDR and Equine-Assisted Therapy. We are now serving all ages, children and adults. Email me at [email protected]. .org

Shout out to Saddle of Love employees, especially our therapist, Mindi McFadden, for providing all the amazing experiences for our beloved clients. Happy Holidays.

Season’s Greeting from Saddle of Love .org

Pumpkin season! Teaching kids how to make delicious healthy recipes roasting pumpkins and pumpkin seeds.

Continued from previous post. 17 years later, the mom found me to thank me for the positive impact I made in their lives. She text me this pictures telling me she saved it for 17 years. She said the coping skills I taught them helped them succeed. She was able to gain back custody of her kids after a year. They have all graduated from high school and one wants to be a social worker. I share this because I love and believe in the work I do. Remember to never give up! The second picture is of the twins today 👏😊❤️

These kids were my clients 17 years ago. Their mother is a single mom of 6 kids. The father was a VET suffering from addiction who entered rehab, leaving them without means to pay rent resulting in homelessness. I spent countless days and nights with them at dozens of homeless shelters and foster homes over the course of three years. This picture is from one night when they called me from a motel crying that they were hungry. I went over with food, stepping over people sitting outside with needles in their arms harassing me. When I entered the motel room there were cockroaches everywhere. I immediately got to work gathering the children in a circle on floor passing out dinner then getting out my art therapy supplies. I started making fake logs out of construction paper and coloring a bright fire. I engaged the children in guided imagery pretending we were out in the wilderness camping around a campfire and told stories. I shared stories of camping, sleeping on the dirt with bugs crawling around and how exciting and adventurous it was, reframing the reality of the situation. We named the cockroaches laughing. Their mother snapped this picture of us in the moment. I reassured them that things will get better and to never give up. When affordable housing could not be obtained due long waitlists the children were all separated into foster care. I continued to follow all of them. Sadly, 3 out of 6 of the children were abused by different foster parents. I finally helped the mom obtain permanent housing at the VA. We celebrated the day I helped them move in, reunited again. One year passed happily until they were evicted as the VA required she had to maintain 40 hours weekly full time work. With 6 children, one an infant and toddler twins with Autism ( twins in this pic), working full time was nearly impossible without affordable childcare. It seemed like a hopeless situation when they went back into shelters then separated again into foster homes. She worked several jobs to get custody of her children again. I moved to Florida but never stopped thinking about them. THEN, Yesterday I got a call from the mother! ( to be continued on next post……

Our wonderful therapist taking clients out on trail rides

We love conducting sibling sessions building on sibling communication, team work and conflict resolution

A visit from Judy Summer always makes the horses happy 💜