Over the past two years, Pegasus has developed a Barn Education Program in partnership with the Southern Westchester Board of Cooperative Education Services (SW BOCES). The goal of the Barn Education Program is to offer students a wide range of opportunities to learn job skills that can lead to further education and employment.

Based at Pegasus Farm in Brewster, NY, the program includes general horse care, horse usage, horse health care, landscaping (pasture and indoor arena), cleaning, clerical and administrative tasks, and stable management.

“Many of these students have very erratic behavior, but working with the horses had a calming affect on them. The students also have a lot of emotional baggage, but they seemed to connect with the horses in a way I did not think possible. The students developed a sense of respect for the animals and it also boosted their own self-esteem.”
-SW BOCES teacher David Hannan.

We have also developed a program working with students from Newtown High School in Connecticut, the Edenwald School in Pleasantville, NY, and teenage girls living in one of the residential homes run by Leake and Watts. Leake & Watts is a private not-for-profit corporation dedicated to strengthening resources for vulnerable children and families in the Greater New York region by providing a continuum of high quality community-based programs and specialized residential educational and therapeutic services.

The Pegasus therapeutic horses and ponies also enjoy the program, as they are given extra special attention by the students. There is an amazing bonding between the horses and ponies, and the students. The participants are a combination of special needs youth, youth at risk, and foster care children.