The Program
Hoofbeats Inc. offers an Equine Facilitated Learning Program for children and adults at our Equibest Equestrian Center in Alto, New Mexico. This program is provided for disabled and high risk youth in Lincoln and Otero Counties.

This Riding Program incorporates behavioral, psychological and physical goals into the program while teaching adapted riding. It allows children with a wide range of physical, mental, emotional and learning disabilities growth opportunities to care for and ride quiet, experienced horses with the assistance of trained volunteers and instructors in an extremely safe and well supervised environment. 

Hoofbeats has provided services to a variety of youth, including the NM School for the Visually Impaired, the Gavilan Canyon School, the Mescalero School system, the Ruidoso Public Schools as well as numerous privately sponsored and scholarship clients. Through their work with horses, these children gain significant improvements in coordination, muscle strength and balance in addition to improvements in self confidence and self esteem. Many children, who arrive at the program afraid of horses and generally withdrawn, are transformed into children dedicated to the horse they have come to know and are far better able to work with the volunteers and the other children. Universally, the response to the program is positive, both for the client participants and for the volunteers.

Hoofbeats also offers art programs to compliment the children’s experience with the horses and to provide them with a “touchstone” for their experiences after completion of their session. The Hoofbeats program has demonstrated its success over and over again to clients in Lincoln and Otero counties. 

Staff and Facility
Our staff includes a wonderful group of volunteers from the community: Dr. Jan Arrowsmith-Lowe as our medical advisor along with trained instructors. Our instructors are certified in First Aid and CPR training. Our staff works closely with the student’s parents, teachers and doctors to provide a program for each student.

The facility offers an indoor and outdoor facility for these classes. We are hoping to secure a grant to put a roof over our new outdoor arena so that this program can go five days a week during any kind of weather.  

Hoofbeats Schooling Show
The fourth annual Hoofbeats Schooling Horse Show and fund raiser is being held at the Equibest Equestrian Center Saturday, September 23, 2006. The horse show features equitation and jumping events for beginner through advanced level riders, and draws riders from as far away as Texas and Mexico.

The horse show proceeds will go toward the Hoofbeats Scholarship Fund, to facilitate the Experiential Learning Horsemanship Program for the Mescalero Apache School students and to provide riding lessons for children and adults with special needs.

            Schooling Show Schedule
            Schooling Show Entry Application   
            Invitation for Schooling Show Sponsors

Hoofbeats Invitation
Everyone is invited to come and visit our facility anytime Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. The entrance gates to the facility will open when you drive up to them during working hours. Anyone interested in volunteering for our program can call us at (505) 336-7090 or e-mail us at equibestinc@aol.com.  We are a 505 c (3) non profit program. We greatly appreciate donations to Hoofbeats Inc. to help this worthy cause.

Related Activities
Summer Day Camps are also offered during the summer. We have regular day camps for the beginner to intermediate rider as well as camp sessions focused on children with special needs.

Our goal is to develop programs for the Little Rascal summer program, the Ruidoso and Capitan Schools, an after school program, and a program for foster care children.