North Star EAL

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11/02/2026

The focus for our White Lake student group this morning was on Teamwork!

This Equine-Assisted Learning challenge works best with 3-5 people, and goes something like this:

🐴 Everyone links arms and must remain joined together throughout the activity.
🐴 The person in the middle of the group is the “brain” and the only one who can speak throughout. Everyone else must remain silent.
🐴 The people on either side of the brain represent the left/right hands and left/right feet.
🐴 Since only the brain can speak, everyone else has to follow their directions *exactly* as they say and act accordingly.
🐴 We switch the order throughout so everyone gets a chance to try each spot.
🐴 We debrief at the end and discuss: what was hard or easy about this task? What did you learn about working together? What could make this process easier or more enjoyable?

This “working together as one” game can be adapted to complete many different tasks; the goal today was to brush the horse, braid her mane, and take her for a walk. This group was a fun one, because they were willing to laugh throughout and have fun with these challenges rather than getting frustrated by the tasks. They used a lot of the energy we talked about last week and had a great attitude about it. The white board shows some of the student’s takeaways. I was impressed with their ability to work together well! Next week, we will continue to build on this lesson.

Want to join us? Have a group who would benefit from EAL and working together? Reach out today!
www.northstareal.org

10/29/2026

This session earlier this week was a unique one, in that it was led by one of our students. This student has been attending Equine-Assisted Learning for about 10 weeks now, as well as completing a handful of traditional riding lessons.

This week, his brother joined the EAL program and is starting from the beginning. So, I asked our first student if he’d be willing to introduce his brother to horses.

Over the next hour, I kept silent except to ask an occasional question, as our student led us through:
- basic horse safety considerations
- how to halter a horse and tie it properly
- how to brush a horse and why it’s important
- how to use a lead rope and lead the horse

It was a good test to see how much our first student has retained and how he phrased things when explaining them to his brother. It was also good for the brother to learn the basics and ease into spending time near the horse.

We’ll keep building on this foundation and I think this EAL group will be really fun to encourage and work with as we go!

10/28/2026

Equine-Assisted Learning sessions aren’t just limited to working with horses, but to all equine kinds. Here at the barn, there are horses of all breeds, colors, personalities, shapes, and sizes to enjoy — donkeys, horses, ponies, and draft horses included!

These students in particular love working with our donkeys and our draft/larger horses! During their lesson last week, they even got to try riding Philly - who is the largest horse in our herd.

There’s something to learn from every horse, and each riding lesson or EAL session looks a bit different. What would your ideal day at the barn look like? We may be able to make it happen. www.northstareal.org/what-we-offer

10/26/2026

Today with our White Lake students, we completed the circle game we’ve been working on for a couple weeks now, followed by some more ba****ck riding.

We started the lesson with some questions about “energy levels” and where each of us were at early on a Monday morning and why. I had the kids fill in the question, “If you were a phone battery, what percentage are you at and why?”

On the whiteboard, we brainstormed some ideas (in red marker) about how we could use our energy levels to influence the horses. The blue marker notes are things that they also discovered throughout the activity.

Once it all finally clicked, it was fun to watch the horses engage and become just as excited as the kids as they worked together to complete the challenge (having the horses go around the circle while the kids remained inside it). They even got the horses to trot around their circle without touching them.

Their challenge for the week then is to find ways at school that they could use their energy levels to influence things in a positive way — themselves, other people, their enjoyment of the work that they do each day.

After this I had a student ask if she could ride a horse backwards, which was also a fun new experience for her!

When we were done with the session, I had the kids answer again what their “battery percentage” was and they said that working with the horses and connecting with them helped to charge them up for the rest of their day.

This is a moment I’ve been really pushing these kids toward for a few weeks now, and I’m excited to see what else they learn in the coming sessions.

So what charges you up and gives you energy for your day? Tell us about it in the comments!

10/23/2026

A recipe for the perfect riding lesson:
✅ Gentle, well-trained horses
✅ A good friend to ride with
✅ A beautiful sunset and cool fall weather
✅ Time spent enjoying the horses and each other

Want to join us and get in the saddle? Check out: www.northstareal.com/what-we-offer!

10/22/2026

A few moments from this week’s White Lake School EAL session! We have fun with these students – they’ve been helping feed the horses in the morning (working those math skills measuring out grain!), completing the EAL challenges we give them each week, and practicing some riding skills too.

Focusing on the connections between the students and the horses, we add a new ground challenge each week. Last week, we asked the students to move the horses around a cone without touching the horse. This week, they repeated this challenge, then we added another step.

This time, the student’s goal was to move the horses around a larger circle without touching them. The students had to remain inside the circle while encouraging the horses to move around it. This is a tricky challenge for many of the people I present it to, and often it takes some time to figure out. It might sound impossible on the surface, but I want the students to ask questions, try different strategies, and use their problem solving skills. The goal is to encourage critical thinking, and let them know they don’t need to rely on me to immediately jump in and solve the problem for them.

This is a challenge I want these kids to master, because finding and maintaining personal energy levels and realizing that they are capable, smart, and able to make things happen is so important for them and will carry to other areas of their lives. This week, they managed to get the horse’s attention and draw them toward the circle. This is the first step toward success. Next week we will continue the challenge, and gradually add more steps.

By the end of the school year, these kids will be doing more amazing things with the horses, and it starts with building their confidence and strong communication skills step by step now.

10/21/2026

How precious is it to be known and loved? It’s easy to see when a person has a favorite horse. They will spend as much time with that horse as they can. When they are together, there is obvious enjoyment, a sense of peace, and belonging.

It may be harder to spot when a horse has a favorite person (or people), but if you watch closely you will see it in that horse’s behavior. While our horses are all trained to behave a certain way, they will be far more relaxed and curious around the people they feel safest with. They are eager to spend time with those people, the enjoyment is mutual for both horse and human. If you know that horse well, you will recognize the signs.

For most of history horses have been used as tools, and the world would not be the same without their contributions. In a modern world where horses are more of a luxury, is it fair to horses to “use” them for our own enjoyment without them enjoying it too? This is what makes Equine-Assisted Learning so unique in its use of co-regulation between horses and humans.

When a person realizes that horses speak a language all their own, they can choose to learn from and communicate with the horses. As that connection grows, the horses will let you more and more into their world. You get beautiful moments like this, where a horse feels safe enough to lie down in a human’s presence (a very vulnerable place for a 1000 lb. prey animal to be!) or to follow a person around the arena without being forced. You get horse and rider pairs where they seem to read each other’s thoughts, because they know and enjoy each other. The strongest connections are those where the human is willing to understand and listen to the horse, and the horse is safe to express itself and also be heard.

Safety is the first topic we cover with many of our Equine-Assisted Learning clients. This includes physical and emotional safety for both the horses and the people involved. Safety works best when founded on mutual respect. Searching for a safe space to learn and grow? Learn more at: www.northstareal.org.

Prov. 18:10 “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”

10/16/2026

This student has developed a strong friendship with this horse (Judah) these last two months, and they’ve been working together through a series of cowboy-themed EAL challenges each week. This week, our student learned how to make a rope halter.

We often use rope halters around the barn, but how many of us have ever stopped to look at one closely and consider all the knots and pieces that make them up? The fact that it is all one piece of rope twisted this way and that into a halter?

Using his resourcefulness and a measured, methodical approach, our student persevered through the directions given this week and was able to lead his horse around the arena using a bright yellow halter he made from scratch. I think his grin when he succeeded says it all!

Want to join us? We still have space this fall for Equine-Assisted Learning sessions and Riding Lessons!

[email protected] | (715) 484-2742 ext. 250

10/14/2026

Here are some moments from another fun and educational cowboy-themed EAL session this week! During this lesson, we talked a lot about the Pony Express – the history surrounding it, what the purpose was (delivering letters across the country in record time!), and why it was important for the riders to have a strong understanding of the horses they rode.

When I’ve taught this lesson plan in the past, the challenge is usually to guide your horse through the obstacle course and deliver a handful of letters in record time. The team has to work together: the horse carries the letters in the saddlebags, the rider or leader directs the horse to each stop and hands off the letters. If it is a group session, we’ll make it a competition to see who can get done the fastest.

This lesson took a different turn: as we were talking the conversation came up, “Imagine if people still only communicated with letters over long distances, how different the world would be!” We talked about how you would probably want to write letters that are important, full of meaning. You would write letters to people you loved and cared for, and you would say what you meant in them.

One of our students wrote down the names of his friends on the envelopes, saying these are the people he would love to write letters to. He wrote the names of the horses we had in the arena. He also wrote a letter to his mom and his brother that read: “I love you!” Once we were done with the session, our student ran and gave his mom a huge hug and also told her this in person. Sometimes, you just need to see and appreciate people for who they are, and say the things that might otherwise go unsaid! So who needs to hear that you see them and you love them today?

Although this session took a different direction than planned, it seemed that the lesson stuck with our student. What else will the horses teach this student as we continue our lessons, and what more could the horses teach you? Contact us today to learn more! www.northstareal.org

10/12/2026

With our White Lake School students, we’ve built a handful of skills these last several weeks. First and foremost, the students have found connections, confidence, and a safe space with the horses. Secondly, they have practiced taking good care of and respecting the horses and each other. Finally, the students have worked through challenges together that encourage problem-solving, creativity, teamwork, and more. They’ve been recognizing that the horses are a vital part of their team and asking good questions as we go through the various activities! These life skills and behavioral patterns learned set them up for success both in school and at home.

Today, we asked the students to work with a horse that they were familiar with, and also a horse that they have not met previously. The challenge was the same for both horses: the students had to set up an obstacle or boundary. Then, without touching the horse, the students had to encourage their horse to move around the boundary in a circle. They quickly accomplished this goal with the familiar horse, who knew them well and followed them easily. It was interesting to watch their approach with the unknown horse. They spent some time with her, quickly learned how curious she was, and encouraged her curiosity so she could learn to follow them.

What I love to see is:
🐴 Authentic connections forming that are not forced or based on “controlling” the horses.
🐴 Teamwork as the students bounced ideas off each other and worked together.
🐴 Encouragement: they cheered the horses on and supported each other throughout.
🐴 Creativity in their approach - there was no wrong answer here on how to accomplish the goal, and they nailed it!

I’m excited to see what challenges these kids will overcome this year, using what they’ve learned at the barn. One student brought up how working with the new horse is similar to how he wants to treat a new student in his class at school. He brought up being gentle, patient, and kind to the new student. I’ll ask him next week how it went. It’s always fun getting to know these kids and being able to pour into their lives through the horses.

Address

N6120 Sawyer Lake Road
White Lake, WI
54491

Telephone

+17154842742

Website

http://northstareal.org/

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