The Doves Guidance Program

Most children that are accepted into our program, ages 5 to 18, are at risk or have emotional, behavior or abuse issues.  These children are matched up with horses that have been rescured or donated and they are assigned a mentor volunteer that teaches the child how to care for their horse from grooming to feeding and they learn the basics of horsemanship and riding. During the child's session with their horse and mentor, they spend about 90 minutes each session working together on the ranch with the horses and other children. Children are encouraged by their mentor volunteer to challenge themselves each week to become better riders and to take inititive in making new friends and learning new skills. Although the children have one session per week riding, they are encouraged to come to the ranch as often as possible.

Our program is supported entirely by a volunteer staff. We have volunteers that help in all asspects of our program, from mentoring to ranch maintainence and administration. Our volunteers bring to our program many talents and abilities including horsemanship skills, writing and web-site design to gardening. Our volunteers give generously our of the love they have with working with children, horses or just being able to serve the community through our program.