Journalist Zack Demars of The Bend Bulletin is writing a series on how Measure 110 dollars are hard at work in Central Oregon. He recently profiled Healing Reins, an equine-assisted mental health program that “uses horses to help clients learn about relationship building and about how their mental health impacts what goes on in their bodies.” This grant represents just one small component of how 110 funds are being utilized in Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook Counties.
Lisa Bradley, Clinical Director for Healing Reins, told The Bulletin that their Measure 110-funded program participants “will do various activities with the horses that Bradley says have therapeutic value, like grooming and leading the horses to learn about boundaries or walking them through obstacle courses to reflect on the obstacles in a person’s own life.” She told Demars: “When there’s this horse here that doesn’t really care about your story (and) isn’t judging you. They just care about you, and they see you and show up, and it helps you kind of not deny that you are alive, and present, and worth relating to…And then they can learn to establish that in their lives.”