Seamark Ranch is a faith-based family home system, residential school, and working farm that gives children from families in crisis the tools they need for a brighter future. Since opening its doors in 2007, more than 100 children have called Seamark home. Each has experienced trauma prior to their arrival, but at the sprawling 465-acre ranch, they find love and healing – and some even find their voice.
Equine program coordinator Allene Zvara recalls one such child, who’d been removed from an abusive home. “She wouldn’t speak to anyone,” Allene explains. “Then she fell in love with our horses. The first time we heard her talking, it was to her horse.”
Seamark’s equestrian program uses a hands-on approach to enhance skills, re-establish trust and motivate positive change. By caring for and riding Seamark’s horses, children learn respect for themselves and others, empathy, self-control, confidence, accountability, and problem-solving. Perhaps most importantly, it’s just plain fun.
“The focus is always on the kids,” Allene emphasizes. “Getting to know a horse is a special relationship that reaches the kids…and gets them to open up.”
