Horse Assisted Therapy Services of North Louisiana (HATS)

02/20/2024

Just waiting on the farrier. In the meantime, let’s talk about the spring riding session. Who’s ready? Y’all start sending me your availability, and I will start scheduling, soon. Looking to kick off around the middle of March!

12/24/2023

Merry Christmas from our HATS Family, to yours! 🎄 This week was fun-filled with a visit from Positive Outcomes and Reindeer Games like Christmas musical poles and snowball fights on horseback! Ok, so maybe they were wadded up paper balls, but still fun 🤣

09/05/2023

What I’m really doing while I’m supposed to be scheduling for fall lessons.

09/05/2023

It looks like it MIGHT be consistently cooler beginning the next week or so. You know what that means? The FALL RIDING SESSION is coming soon! Please be sure to send your scheduling requests to me 😊

08/08/2023

Vinny is a little embarrassed. He has a lot of white on his face, and the pink skin underneath can sunburn. Sunscreen just wasn’t cutting it this year, so we had to order a super sized fly mask for him. It’s definitely helping, but he does wish we would stop loving him so much 🤣

08/07/2023

One of the perks of volunteering with us is that you might get a riding lesson, if a rider cancels last minute! Let us know if you are interested in volunteering this fall. Activities will be held weekday afternoons beginning mid-September. Volunteers should be 16 years and older and have a strong desire to help others. Horse experience is helpful, but not required.

08/03/2023

Not only has little brother become an independent rider at the walk and jog this summer, big brother surprised their fan club with his first lope. I LOVE THESE GUYS! ❤️ So proud of them.

08/02/2023

I think Alex gets the “Happiest Rider” award. He starts laughing when he gets here and doesn’t stop until he leaves! 🤣❤️🤣

08/01/2023

Trail rides have been a great way to beat the heat this summer! A little shade and a nice breeze can make a big difference. The trails are also a great way to work on core stability and balance as we go up and down hills, learning left and right, using our eyes to look for animals and other items along the way, and putting the skills we’ve been working on in the arena into practice in the open. It’s also lots of fun!

06/29/2023

Much ❤️ and appreciation for our friends at the OPSO and anglers who participate in this tournament! HATS relies heavily on public support to keep us going and providing services to those in our community who need us.

Chief Deputy Marc Mashaw and Sheriff Jay Russell presented Leslie Vowles, representing HATS (Horse Assisted Therapy Services of North LA) a donation in the amount of $3000.00.
The donation comes from the proceeds of the annual OPSO Bass Tournament on the Ouachita held last Saturday, June 24th.
HATS mission is to provide therapeutic horsemanship instruction to people who are “differently abled” and their families through equine assisted activities. Each year, proceeds from the tournament are donated to HATS. “We hope everyone enjoyed the tournament. We extend our thanks to the teams that participated and especially thank the sponsors that help us with it each year. The proceeds go to a very worthy cause” – Sheriff Jay Russell. For more information about HATS, including ways you can help if you are interested, visit their website www.horseassistedtherapy.org/

05/31/2023

So thankful for our new friends at the 2023 CrawfishCraze 5D Barrel Run! These folks put on a phenomenal event and donated TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS to HATS on Sunday 😳❤️😳

05/31/2023

Looking for something “cool” to do this summer? Come out and volunteer with us! Volunteer training is mandatory for all new volunteers, and will be held on Thursday, June 8, from 9 to 12. Volunteers should be age 16 and older, comfortable walking in outdoor morning temperatures, commit to helping one morning a week, and enjoy helping others. Prior horse experience is helpful, but not required. Activities will begin June 12 and continue through August 4 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings.

05/27/2023

Y’all come see us at The Crawfish Craze Barrel Races at the Ike! We are proud to have been chosen as their charity this year ❤️ 🦞 ❤️. Lots of awesome vendors here, and some crazy fast barrel racing!

04/27/2023

When you are excited because your mom calls you to breakfast, then you remember it’s a school day 🤣

04/27/2023

Not sure how this weather is going to impact tomorrow’s lessons, but if we get rained out, you can always come see me at Lincoln Hall tomorrow evening! 😉 Oh, and if you win that pallet of feed, you can always donate it to your friendly neighborhood therapeutic horsemanship program!

04/06/2023

The weather doesn’t look too promising for the next couple of days, so I’m officially canceling lessons on Thursday, April 6. Y’all stay warm and dry!

03/31/2023

Well, spring has officially sprung! It’s been great to see new faces and returning ones, too! I have to say, we have some FANTASTIC volunteers 😊

03/31/2023

Y’all plan to come out and meet Dan and all our friends for a fun and educational event hosted by Tool City Feed! I can’t say enough about how great they’ve been to us ❤️ We will also have a booth there and would to talk to anyone who will listen about what we do and how to get involved in our program. 😉

03/07/2023

Do we have a rider and family or volunteer who would like to come out and be interviewed by KNOE news this Wednesday or Thursday afternoon?

02/22/2023

Volunteer training will be held on Thursday, March 9, from 3:00-6:00, at 679 Beulah Church Rd in Calhoun. This class is mandatory for all new volunteers, so I hope to see lots of smiling new faces! Volunteers should be 16 years or older, able to commit to a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday afternoon each week between mid March and the end of May, and enjoy long walks with horses and riders. Horse experience is helpful, but not a requirement. 😉 Let me know if you are interested!

02/22/2023

What did everyone else do this winter when we were all having horse riding withdrawals? Lucky for us, spring session is just around the corner! Please let me know if you are interested in participating this spring by commenting, messaging, or texting your scheduling preferences. We will be riding on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons mid March through the end of May.

11/17/2022

In the spirit of thankful Thursday, Thanksgiving, and love for our River Rats, I’d like to thank everyone, big and small, two legged and four, near and far, who participated and/or registered knowing you couldn’t make it, those who bid, wagered, donated, sponsored, contributed before and after, and made it the fun event it has been from the very beginning, repeat offenders and newbies, all of you. Y’all are the VERY BEST.

Drumroll, please…

$9,187.55 raised for HATS this year!!!

11/10/2022

This lovely young woman has been riding with us since before HATS was “HATS,” she was one of my very first students. She was going through some med changes that were making her feel a little “off” this fall so she couldn’t ride, but she still wanted to come out and volunteer, and we loved having her help around the barn! We are all glad she is back to herself, again, and she has been glad to return to riding! It was only fitting that she was the first of our riders to try out Rioux.

11/04/2022

Meet Rioux! She is owned by one of our volunteers and is auditioning to become part of our therapy herd. We have high hopes for her, and she is quickly becoming a barn favorite!

11/03/2022

We have had an overwhelming response, thanks to all of you who shared or messaged us! We have filled the position with two people, a current and a former volunteer, who are already familiar with our horses and routines, but I’ll be saving the responses in case we need another feeder in the future! I’d like to suggest that we will be looking for volunteers this on weekday afternoons this spring, and that’s a great way to get started with us!

We are looking for a feeder, specifically to cover some weekday mornings, but also some evenings begin later on this month. Ideal candidates should be comfortable and competent catching horses and leading them in and out of the barn to eat, notice when a horse is sick or injured, and live near Calhoun. It only takes about an hour and times can be somewhat flexible, but it only pays $20/feeding, that’s why I need someone local. Please message us if you are interested.

11/03/2022

Often, we have a rider who gets a little stuck in a rut and have to push to get to the next level. Something finally “clicked” this fall, and this young lady is moving toward becoming an independent rider. 😆 She doesn’t have a leader anymore, but does have a person on each side to help when processing is a little slow or her cues are a little too soft (her horse really appreciates her soft hands). She had already learned how to sign for walk and cluck to trot, but now, they are appropriate and without prompting. She is now using her reins to ask her horse to walk, halt, and turn. Our next steps will be for those cues to become more effective, to perform them with less prompting, and maybe even using spatial awareness to get her timing better. As you can see in the post-ride photos, she truly loves horses and her barn time! This is a wonderful example of how her outside/traditional therapies and therapeutic horsemanship work together. Special thanks to her mom, Brittney Baker, for always helping out, especially when we are short on volunteers, HATS President Don Newell, and of course, her wonder horse, Cookie! I’d also like to thank Brenda Owens for the fabulous pictures!

10/31/2022

I hope everyone’s Halloween was as full of howlingly good fun as ours was!

10/20/2022

Please help me welcome Jake’s newest fan and the first recipient of our Abby Harrell Memorial Scholarship. I’d like to thank everyone who made a donation in Abby’s name, and so far, y’all have raised over $2,300!