 Twisted Wire Ranch is our business and we run equine assisted learning program, horse program with Leading Thunderbird Lodge. Leading Thunderbird Lodge is a youth detox center for boys ages 12 to 18 I do believe and they target kids, First Nations kids that are struggling with addiction. They can be, they're Canadian wide so they can come from all the way from Labrador to BC up to the Northern Territories, anything in Canada. 90% of it is a riding program. There's other ELA programs, equine assisted learning programs out there that do mostly ground-based training. We on the first day is all ground-based get to know your horse and then from there on out it's all riding. They are on the backs of those horses basically for those three months as they come. We try to make a relationship with the kids and the horses that kind of reflect each other so there is that mutual ground. Sometimes as the kids progress in their riding we put them on more challenging of a horse and vice versa. If they're struggling with one we maybe kind of back down a little bit and we change horses up so we have quite the spectrum of horses that way that we have at our you know disposal that we can use. The horses they've been doing this for quite a while so when the kids come in the first thing they always do is a meet-and-greet. The horse always turns around and smells that person and they get a feel for who that is and I always encourage the kids to talk to that horse and introduce themselves and it's really kind of silly but at the same time that horse needs to know who you are as well as you need to know who they are and so somebody who's laid back as a horse and you get somebody in here who's just radiating nerves you can see that they pick that up but at the same time they're so comfortable with that that they start to relax and then you'll notice the kids start to take a deep breath and calm down and pet them and just start to absorb that energy off that horse as well that calmness from them. Open a whole new spectrum when you put the youth on a horse. Horses are herd animals they're meant to follow a leader there is a boss so when you're on the ground they're always following that youth wherever they need to be and through their challenges but the minute you take that that leadership roll away from directly in front of them and you put them on top now they have to communicate a little bit differently they have to through body language and just their emotions on just sitting up there and if they're you know nervous that horse can pick up on that and so they have to learn to be able to control their emotions and and express those in a little bit differently when then when they're on the ground. It teaches them how to work as partners. It teaches them how to work with other people and how to not just follow the leader. Not just follow the leader. Makes them take control. We try to hit all aspects so spiritual horses and First Nations have there's a big connection between the two of them as well as doing some physical activity it is very physically demanding riding a horse and then obviously emotionally having a one-on-one connection with that horse and building a relationship and a bond with their partner because they do are challenged and each horse is different so we try to match them up as best we can with something that reflects them we always say as a rider the horse is a reflection of you so we try to have that relationship between the youth as well as the horses. The focus on the correlation between horses and First Nations there's a big entity there that is it goes back like a long time that they've always been connected and youth and horses and animals there's always that relationship that there's people can't put I guess a figure to it they can't it's just an emotional connection that there's you can't explain really the minute they touch those horses and they feel the warmth they feel that the hair and that they know that they're having a connection with that horse there's just no way of I guess explaining that. It's from start to finish over those three months and getting to know those boys and the fact that lots of them have never touched a horse and then watching them deal with struggles and having those breakdowns they have something didn't go right that day and then you see them talk to their horses and then all of a sudden it's like everything's right in the world for them when they get here for those two hours there is a love hearing the success stories that have come out of the lodge not just through the kids in the lodge as well as just our horse program I'll meet them four years from now and they're oh my god Dallas I came to the horse program and I think that's and you know they never go on to necessarily ride horses after here but it's one of those ways of reaching them while they are here and and having that opportunity to be around the horses. To me it's focusing on the whole being so you want to make sure that there's you know physical as well as spiritual and cultural and all those aspects are kind of all broached so that people have a well-rounded opportunity to come out of school and be you know very successful. I just hope that they're able to be successful and if we can approach it's not just mainstream down you know everything's the same so I love that they are broaching new ideas in order to reach these youths and give them more opportunities to get educated and find something that works for them whether you know hands-on work or or academically that type of thing.