Other End of the Lead Rope
The Smiling Goat Ranch Blog
22 A Day
This past month, I had the opportunity to attend an event called Ride2Zero that Smiling Goat Ranch had been working on alongside a veteran named Nick. This event, a motorcycle rally, was in honor of a veteran friend of Nick’s who had committed suicide earlier this year. Nick brought to our attention that 22 veterans commit suicide a day, and he wanted his friend and our organization to help bring awareness to this issue.
February Is Recreation Therapy Month
During my sophomore year of college, I would volunteer a few times a week under a recreation therapist at a retirement community center in my college town. Each week I would see the same residents, and I began to know them on a deeper level. As we played board games or did seated exercises, the residents would tell me all kinds of stories from their life that allowed us to form a special friendship.
Breathing for Healing
The modern human brain took shape around 200,000 years ago – over 190,000 years before civilization! To keep the species alive, early humans had to be able to respond to danger at a moment’s notice, and the nervous system developed for this purpose. While the dangers today are much different than those faced by our prehistoric ancestors, our brains are largely the same.
I’m Not Scared of You: I Own A Mare
I’m Not Scared of You: I Own A Mare! Anyone who has owned a mare probably knows this saying. It’s been on t-shirts and bumper stickers. Mares have a reputation for being a bit particular. I was always a gelding person growing up horse-crazed in my teens and twenties. I know many horse people who gelding-only people to this day. Funny now how two mares have found their way into my life, and how much I have changed my tune.
Journey Into Animal Narnia
Whether I was lying on the floor for hours with the family dog or exploring the “green tunnels” of the East Coast forests, I have always, always, always gravitated toward nature and animals. These environments served as a playground, a sanctuary, and a place of peace and solitude at different points in my life, and the animals I interacted with in these spaces became some of my closest companions, confidants, and teachers.
Why It’s Never Too Late
Sue Kroug was the manager of the restaurant my parents owned in the heart of Wayne, Pennsylvania. Sue wore snakeskin stilettos. She also owned a horse. I started riding with Sue when I was 6 years old. My life quickly became punctuated by time spent at the barn and riding. Weekly lessons turned to summer camps. I watched Ronald Reagan reign at the Republican National Convention in the summer of 1984 with my dad and rode as much as possible every day. Summer Camp led to horse shows and leasing ponies and, in time, to buying a horse. I named that horse - Oliver.
Social Work and Smiling Goat Ranch
If you’ve been around the ranch lately, you have probably seen two new faces walking around. My name is Sarah and I am one of them. The other is Joe. We are students at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social and we are interning at Smiling Goat Ranch! We are the first social work interns that the ranch has ever had.
In Smiling Goat We Trust
Ever have a hunch? Then, actually follow that hunch? “Sheryl, I am officially a long hauler and currently wearing a heart monitor. I’m having a flare up and my brother and cousin have offered to come with us in case I have palpitations and they take over. Totally understand with COVID protocols if it doesn’t work.”
Supporting community
There is no denying that the coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives and will have lasting impacts on our community. While many are focused on the economic impacts the pandemic has caused, it is important to remember that our at-risk communities have suffered not only economic hardships, they have lost their social and emotional support networks as well.
Clinically Proven Program
Our clinically proven program puts those with neuropsychiatric conditions like PTSD, autism, anxiety, and depression into a healing environment with service horses and small social animals. In these sessions, specific movements activate the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex, helping our riders achieve fine and gross motor skills and gain emotional regulation and reasoning.
Smiling Goat Ranch’s Hay Bale Ball 2019
On a gorgeous Saturday evening in late August, Smiling Goat Ranch, founded in 2015 by Karl Hanlon and Sheryl Barto, held its first Hay Bale Ball at the Holden/Marolt Mining and Ranching Museum in Aspen. Guests dined on crepes from Mawa’s Crepe Cart, sipped batched specialty cocktails from Marble Distilling Company, and shimmied to live music, while also experiencing sensory work on the horses and meeting some of the other therapy animals, including adorable goats, dogs, and bunnies.