Manes and Miracles

At Manes and Miracles, the goal is to provide the life-enhancing opportunity of therapy services and activities with equines and other unique evidenced-based tools in a ranch-style setting to children in the greater southeast Phoenix area who have been diagnosed with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities at minimal to no cost. We aim to provide the equines, volunteers, equipment, and space necessary so that the therapists we partner with and the special needs kids they work with can focus on maximizing the progress of the child without concern for the financial or other resources and skills necessary to operate a quality equine-assisted therapy facility.

Manes and Miracles employs several strategies to ensure our goal of providing an equine-assisted therapies and activities facility to special needs children at little to no cost. Manes and Miracles operates with a predominantly volunteer staff, keeping overhead costs as low as possible. With only one part-time, paid employee, the rest of the staff volunteers their time to maintain and train the horses, care for the facility, operate the office, assist with therapy sessions, fundraise, and help with special projects.

While Manes and Miracles has strict requirements that therapists must meet, we do not employ the therapists providing services, keeping the expense of employee management, insurance relationships, training, etc the responsibility of the companies they are contracted through. Approved therapists are granted access to the facility, equines, equipment, and volunteers on a case-by-case basis. This ensures that the focus of quality therapy from the therapists and the focus of a quality facility, equines, and volunteers by Manes and Miracles can partner together to create a well-rounded, low-cost program designed for maximum effectiveness.

With the help of a highly supportive community and an ever-growing team of volunteers, Manes and Miracles puts emphasis on staying aware of developments within the special needs and equine communities and finding ways to blend the two fields in a manner best suited to the needs of the children we work with.

At M&M we work hard to accomplish our vision of providing an affordable or no-cost equine-assisted therapies and activities facility and have proven we are capable in a very short time. Between our first and second season, we doubled the number of providers offering services through us and the number of children receiving services at the Manes and Miracles ranch more than doubled to an average of 60 kids a week. We have worked diligently with local high schools, neighborhoods, churches, and other community organizations to grow our volunteer base. With volunteer trainings being held 4-6 times a year, we have trained around 100 volunteers and have an average of 120 volunteered hours each week.

We have a great base of horses that continue to be worked with regularly to ensure they remain sharp and ready to serve the kids who love them so dearly.

As we continue to grow, we implement new ideas and look forward to adding programs that will reach even more individuals with disabilities as our resources responsibly allow us to do.

We strive to honor the kindness of our donors, sponsors, and grantors by growing and making improvements as wisely as possible and only as funds are available, ensure we remain a financially sound organization.

In just two short riding seasons, Manes and Miracles has rapidly developed to train and reactivate six physical and occupational therapists offering therapy with equines, serve over 60 children a week, engage the community with over 480 volunteer hours a week. We have grown our herd to 10 specially trained and cared for equines and 2 goats that are beloved by the children we serve, their families, the volunteers, and the M&M staff. We have hosted over two dozen large scale service projects for Eagle Scout potentials, church youth groups, families, women's organizations, high school clubs, and neighborhoods. We have successfully organized and improved upon annual or regularly reoccurring fundraisers. We have created valuable partnerships with special needs schools, local businesses, and other community organizations.

We look forward to adding additional opportunities to provide unique therapy experiences for the guests at Manes and Miracles and satisfying volunteer opportunities for our community over the next few years as we:

- Strengthen our Adaptive Riding program to continue on the skills and progress of our guests through more independent horsemanship.

- Add a program to provide services for special needs adults to work with the horses

- Create a program to develop job skills for teens and young adults with special needs

- Build a custom aquatic therapy pool that will allow the children to continue to receive therapy services via unique, results-based tools and experiences during the hot Arizona summers when riding horses outdoors is not an option.

- Build an indoor sensory gym as an option during the hot Arizona summers.

- Hire 2-3 additional staff members to share the workload of the growth and maintenance of the organization.

- Develop an equine-assisted psychotherapy and behavioral health program.

- Create a program for first responders and active or retired military struggling with PTSD to find healing through horses.