(mellow guitar playing) - If you can get a person to even walk up and touch a horse, to feel the horse breathe, that slow rhythmic breathing.

I've seen people that have had really bad days, they're in a crisis situation and the horse just seems to accept all of that from them and calm them down.

(country music picks up) Ricigliano Farms encompasses a lot of different things.

It's an equine facility.

It started out as a Arabian breeding farm, and it's evolved into an equine assisted physical and psychotherapy program and a working student program for kids, where some of the local schools, the kids get off the bus, they do their homework, they work with the horses.

(guitar chords play) The makeup of the horses here at Ricigliano Farm is what I like to call eclectic.

- We have everything from the miniature horse to a very large warmblood, and everything in between.

- [Victor] And we also have horses that were rescued.

- And those are the most grateful ones.

We have rescued some that have been in situations where they've been near starved to death or abused.

- We have horses like Aspen who was in the vet's Wards when we bought her at an auction.

She was within seven days of starving to death.

- All she looked like was bones covered with hair.

She had a baby at her side when we got her.

And the baby was also near death.

- Well, Lori and I purchased them both, and it's a very happy ending.

- [Lori] She has been just such a wonderful horse in our equine assisted therapy program - [Victor] Artie was sold to a 4-H girl.

Artie was supposed to die within 48 hours.

- It's very interesting to watch how they go from no trust to then not just trusting, but helping humans.

- We have a client here, a young man, his name's Oliver.

Oliver comes from a very rough background.

Adoptive mother loves him dearly, treats him as if it is her blood child.

And she was having problems with Oliver's behavior.

He was acting up at home, acting up at school.

And he came in here and we started with just talking with him and then brushing the horses.

So he learned, through the horses, respect for other people's boundaries.

And instead of demanding things, he's learned to ask - [Kallie] Let's go get your horse.

- [Victor] So if he asks the horse to come with him, using the correct cues with the horse, the horse will come with him.

- [Kallie] Good job!

- [Lori] Good.

- [Kallie] Nice and easy.

- [Victor] But when he demands and yanks on the horse, the horse is not gonna let him do that.

Well, Oliver has come so far with his equine therapy that not only does he still come for therapy with Kallie to work with the horse, but he's also now one of our youngest working students.

He works one day a week.

And he cleans stalls, he hauls barrels, he drives tractors.

He was here for haying.

He's come a very, very long way.

And the horse has allowed him to open up to Kallie.

Which gives her the opportunity to give him the tools to deal with those traumas that he had when he was younger.

- During our sessions, when we are working with the horse, we have an equine specialist that's also a part of our sessions.

So it'll be the equine specialist myself, and then the client.

- [Lori] Ready?

Okay.

Good?

All right, let's look straight ahead.

Squeeze a little bit with your calves and go forward.

- What that equine assisted therapy handler should be looking for is the stress level on that horse.

Because what happens, is the horse takes on or reflects back what that rider or patient is giving off.

- You know, we kind of have that fight-or-flight response when we do something that is scary or that we're fearful of.

Horses are very much on that level as well.

And so they can really read people's body language.

They can even, just by touching them, they can sense where your heart rate is at.

Are your muscles tense?

- [Lori] Give 'em one last hug.

- [Kallie] They really can communicate non-verbally, just like how we can.

They're very helpful when clients aren't communicating openly and honestly.

- Each horse has a story.

Sometimes they're good stories and sometimes they're not so good stories, but they have stories.

- When we have a new client that comes in here, we'll walk through the barn with them and we'll introduce 'em to the horses.

And all's we do is give them the horse's name.

And they go through and they look and they spend a couple minutes in front of every stall.

And then when they're done, we'll ask them, "Is there a horse that stood out to you?

Is there a horse that you would like to start working with?"

- And what is so interesting, and almost, it's dead-on scary, the children or adults are drawn to the horse that has their problem.

- Children that have come in here that come from an abusive background, they will migrate to the two horses that are from an abuse case.

And they know nothing about these horses background, but that's the horse that they link with.

(ukulele softly plays) We created Hoof Beats for Healing as a 501(c)(3).

And we did that so that people can donate to the horses.

And if people go to our website, you can go on there and you can give a donation to get the horse's feet done one time.

Or to, that you're going to give so much a month for food for that horse, or you want to, you want to donate money so that a child can work with a horse.

'Cos right now, insurance covers the therapy end of it.

It doesn't cover the equine use fee with the horse.

And we've been working forever to try and get insurance companies to recognize it.

So we do have kids that come out here that rely on grants.

And Hoof Beats for Healing gives those grants to those kids.

- [Lori] Nice deep breath in through the nose, down to the head... How can an animal who can't speak help others speak?

I wouldn't choose anything else to do with my life.

Every single day I get up and I'm like, I get to ride horses today.

I get to help others today with my horses.

I get to translate what the horses are saying.

- [Female Voiceover] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.

And by the members of Prairie Public.