Wild Faith Ranch: A Road to Hope
Promoting mental health and personal growth through Equine Assisted Learning (EAL), one relationship at a time.
What is Equine Assisted Learning?
Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) is a horse-based learning approach that promotes the development of healthy life skills for educational and personal goals.
Here at Wild Faith Ranch, we incorporate horse activities such as horsemanship, social skills, equine science and personal development to teach skills and help each individual reach their own emotional, relational and spiritual goals.
Why EAL?
Equine Assisted Learning is a program used all as an adjunctive therapy for individuals. EAL is an experiential education process with the belief that horses can help us learn new, more innovative ways of thinking about behavior & how we interact with other people.
Through a collaborative experiential learning process, participants use past experience, trial and error, reflection, generalization and metaphors to facilitate learning. Participants then take their experiences and the insights they have developed and bring them back to their licensed mental health provider.
Benefits of EAL include:
- Safe and inviting learning environment.
- Identification of behavioral patterns, and guided decision making about them
- Invitation to practice new behaviors and experience healing.
- Development of life and communication skills
- Receiving of warm relationships with our horses and enjoyment in relationship building
Who is EAL for?
Individuals of all ages and levels of cognitive development can benefit from EAL. Clinical studies suggest that EAL is effective in aiding the treatment of:
- Depression
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Anxiety
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Low Self-Esteem
- Behavioral problems
- Autism
- Conduct disorder
- Aggression and Substance abuse
Those who struggle with any medical, emotional, cognitive, and/or psychological issues may struggle also with compliance & response to medical treatment plans. The unique relationship found between an individual and the horse can build on skills to strengthen adherence and willingness to comply with physicians’ treatment plans.
Examples of these skills include:
- Greater sense of self
- Communication with animals offers more energy
- Feeling of acceptance and belonging
- Development of trust
- Building social skills
- Increased assertiveness and responsibility
- Decreased aggressiveness
- Enhanced motivation
- Develops problem solving skills
- Encourages concentration
- Improved confidence and self-esteem
- Improved communication skills
- Improved listening skills
- Improvements in self-control
- Learning to master fears
- Helps you find your voice
- Horses are Fun
Meet the Team
Rochelle Dahlberg
President & Founder
Growing up around horses her whole life, Rochelle Dahlberg – founder of Wild Faith Ranch – has personified her life’s passion with the love of horses. This passion presents itself through her EAL session leadership in helping to heal those who seek to engage.
With great skill, compassion and love, she helps partner human clientele with equine partners to frame and develop value-added skills that reveal a pathway to healing.
Rochelle began her EAL journey several years ago in an environment predominately of survivors of sex trafficking. Her passion and motivation have revolved around the deep desire that love be so displayed among these women that they feel alive, worthy and more than enough again.
Building on the programming intended specifically for these survivors, Rochelle has launched a life-building program available to anyone who wants to engage. She combines her horsemanship skills with the trust of her therapy horses to offer opportunities of healing, growth and change in the lives of those they serve.
Rochelle is also a wife, mother, mother-in-law and grandmother of twins, in whom each and every one is the light of her life.
Brenda Straubel
Vice President
Brenda Straubel is married to Steve Straubel, her college best friend, and is a mother of 4 and grandmother of 5. She lives in Salem Oregon and has worked as a mortgage loan officer for 17 years. Before that she worked in various insurance capacities since graduating from college.
She grew up on a farm with 5 horses, ducks with their own little pond, cattle, chickens including a mean rooster, pigs, and a super large garden. Their family lived off the land and whatever her dad was able to hunt for. She ended up raising her own family in the city, and still lives there today. She likes riding bikes, small intimate plays, visiting with kids and grandkids, hosting family events, studying God’s word, a hot latte with a good book, baking pies, and water sports.
If you found Brenda in her happy place, she would be surrounded with family eating delightful food, laughing, telling stories, praying together and enjoying one another with lots of hugs and kisses.
Hannah Rideout
Secretary & Treasurer
Homeschooled til high school, Hannah spent much of her childhood learning alongside horses. Prior to becoming a graduate from Bellingham High in 2017, she started many welcome programs within the Whatcom County high schools. That fight for good has never left her heart.
She started riding horses at the age of 12 to spend time with her mom, only to later realize that it healed her from the inside out and filled her with joy. This personal experience, partnered with a passion to provide similar peace others is why she supports Wild Faith and their mission. She hopes that through her service to WFR, she can leave the world aa better place for her daughters and encourage them to carry forward that dream.
Meet the Horses
Maddie
Quarter Horse
Maddie is the rock in this barn! She came to us in 2014 after being a brood mare of many foals. Maddie has the compassion and kindness that only a mother knows and loves to connect with her people. Maddie schools the younger horses into courage and acceptance, loving on the other horses, naturally she is a favorite at Wild Faith.
Lexi, Appendix
Quarter Horse
Lexi is one of the sweetest mares in our barn, she will bend over backwards to figure out how to please you. She is 100% locked onto you when you go and engage her. Lexi is unique in her ability to give you immediate confidence and safety. Lexi is our go to horse when we are hoping for a calm in the storm! Lexi is one of those horses that the barn wishes we had 10 of.
Moki
Paint Quarter Horse
Being our elder mare in our barn, in her day, she rocked the house with winnings and was a rockstar in the arena. Today she is retired and just loves to be with her herd and her people and has tons of compassion for the hurting and the misplaced. She also recognizes those people that are misunderstood, and somehow can bring out peoples to kindness. Moki is our beloved mare that keeps on giving.
Johnny & Cash
Miniature Horses
The adorable factor is sky high as they look you in your eye and you melt three sides of Sundays. Not a mean or sassy bone in their bodies, they sincerely want to go where you want to go and be part of your day. They love the little ones and the big ones alike, they remind us of how bright a gloomy day can be. There are the most sincerely happy part of our barn. They will definitely put a smile on your face!