BEAN BLOSSOM — Confidence can be built wherever one sets out to improve themselves. One of those places just so happens to be a horse farm west of Bean Blossom, down a long gravel drive off of State Road 45.

Hope for Hearts Inc. was founded in 2012 by Lisa Bowman, an equine experiential education facilitator.

The farm is an equine — or horse — assisted learning program offering goal-based ground activities to help individuals, groups or teams grow in all areas of their lives.

They offer three different programs: Hope for Hearts, Journey to Leadership and Gateways for Groups.

Hope for Hearts is the main program, where participants can work one-on-one with a horse and certified facilitator.

Typically the program sees kids and adults who are usually struggling or feeling disconnected in their personal or work life, Bowman said.

The Journey to Leadership program is for organizational groups. An assessment is done of the individuals on the team that will be coming to the farm and Hope for Hearts puts on a customized workshop with focus areas for the group.

They come and spend time with the horses then debrief after each activity. They leave the farm with an action plan to take back to and implement in their workplace. Hope for Hearts then follows up with them 60 days later to see what outcomes they’ve experienced.

Gateways for Groups is similar to Journey to Leadership, except not as structured, Bowman said. They see more youth groups along with women’s and men’s groups come for that workshop, which fits into a given timeframe for their visit.

Bowman is a nurse, but left the profession to stay home with her daughter, Abigail.

Everything was about horses when Abigail was little, Bowman said. Eventually she let her daughter ride.

Bowman started working at the farm where Abigail was taking riding lessons in exchange for those lessons.

After about a year-and-a-half, Bowman said she endured a life event that shattered her own self esteem. But she continued to work through it at the farm.

“The Lord just showed me how he used those horses to gain back my confidence and laid it on my heart to share that with others,” she said.

In 2012 she and her family took a leap of faith, putting their home in northwest Morgan County on the market and selling it about a week later.

They ended up in Brown County, on State Road 45 just west of Bean Blossom.

“When I was growing up my best friend had horses and I know why now, but I wanted to be there anytime I could with the horses,” she said. “It’s been cool that now I get to experience that everyday and to see other people, to see the transformations that come for people by being with the horses.”

Their slogan is “Leaving hoofprints of hope on every heart we touch,” which is something they set out to do for every visitor.

Growing confidence

Measuring outcomes is vital to see the success of their programs. Bowman said last year that feedback from participants showed they had 100% improvement in confidence, focus, relationships and taking initiative.

For their Journey to Leadership program, they hear from groups that visited the farm years ago and the impact it has — and still has — today.

“We had group from Pepsi Co. and they said their team is forever changed from what they experienced with the horses,” she said.

“It’s very powerful what people get from being with the horses.”

While what Hope for Hearts does is not therapy, spending time with the horses yields therapeutic benefits for visitors.

“They have just as many moods and personalities as people,” Bowman said.

Horses are animals of prey in the wild and have incredible instincts. They can pick up on what someone is feeling deep inside and reflect it back immediately.

“If someone is nervous, but they come into the arena or into the horse stall like they’re all confident, the horse doesn’t pay attention to the confidence, they pick up on the nervousness,” Bowman said. “They’ll start moving around and signaling to me that, ‘Oh, this person isn’t really as confident as they appear to be.’ They reflect those things back right away.”

Horses are great at helping a person evaluate how they’re showing up in life and what changes may need to be made in order to help one reach outcomes or goals in an activity that Hope for Hearts gives someone to complete.

“Because of that, you learn great communication, leadership skills, relationship skills, because everything happens with the horse in relationship, which is directly transferrable to our relationships at school, home or at work,” Bowman said. “From all of that, your confidence grows.”

Each individual session begins with grooming a horse. The rhythmic activity is not just relaxing for the horse, but also for people.

“It’s a great way to connect with the horse and be in the moment,” Bowman said. “We tend to not be present in our lives because we’re thinking about everything.”

Then there is a goal-based activity to complete with a horse in one of the arenas. In a debriefing session at the end discussions are held about what happened with the horse and why they think anything in particular happened. If a person was feeling anxious or nervous during the session they can talk about where else, and why is, that emotion showing up in their life and then discuss an overall takeaway from the session.

They journal for the next week and come back ready to dive in again.

They piloted the program at the farm where Bowman had worked before she brought the concept to Brown County.

Now, there are seven horses — three full size, two ponies, a mini horse and a mini donkey —, four certified facilitators on staff and many volunteers who help out at the farm.

Hope for Hearts is a nonprofit organization, receiving funding from donations, grants and the programs they offer.

Scholarships are offered for the Hope for Hearts individual program because their hope is to provide that program to whomever may need it, Bowman said,. Individual sessions are $55.

Groups are set up to help support the farm and its operations, she said.

Individual and group sessions are not their only focus. Hope for Hearts also puts on different events throughout the year and some are quickly approaching.

“Connected” is a couples event happening next weekend, designed to improve communication and closer relationship within participants’ marriages.

“Free to Be Me” will be Thursday and Friday, June 23 and 24 for girls ages 10 to 14 years old to help them “discover freedom in who they are,” Hope for Hearts’ website says.

The event will handle those tough-to-talk-about topics, like body changes, social media and peer pressure. Of course, there will be activities with horses tied to those topics.

In August, Hope for Hearts will host Reining Leaders, a personal development program for people in leadership roles.

All events require no previous experience with horses.

Bowman said their mission —- that they often see accomplished — is helping people improve their quality of life in the community at large.

“We may be small, but big things happen here. Lives are being changed here.”