Table of Contents An Excerpt from the book:  Introduction Why the Kamp Kessa Challenge Learning Community Utilizes Horses and the Wilderness with At-Risk and Special Needs Youth              There is no quiet place in [your] cities, no place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect wings……The Indians prefer the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a midday rain, or scented with pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath-the animals, the trees, the man. Like a man who has been dying for many days, a man in your city is numb to the stench.                                                                      Chief Seattle (1790-1866) Being an adventure education and treatment program utilizing horses and the wilderness with at-risk and special needs youth, we are often asked  `why do we use horses?' and `why do we emphasize youth being in natural settings?' Often the questioner will consider young people having such access as a privilege that should be either awarded or withdrawn according to the perceived appropriateness of their recent behaviors. After all isn't getting to ride a horse a privilege that is a great `reinforcer' which should be rightfully earned? Here's the short version of our answer.  Studies have shown that increasing numbers of American children and youth are at risk of serious impediments to growing into healthy adults. Health issues, poverty, alcohol, drugs, inadequate networks of support and more are all challenges to their health and welfare. To appreciate the truth of these impediments does not require that statistics about drugs, violence and teenage pregnancy be rattled off. All that is really needed is for concerned adults to watch how many children learn at a tender age not to be tender - and how many young people in America today have come to assume that being successful means looking out for Number One. Structured mentoring of youth - in a wilderness challenge environment - has proven to significantly impact in positive ways some if not all of these struggles. Educators and therapists have been using wilderness challenges in therapeutic programs for troubled youth for decades. The Wellness of Nature Ecopsychology seeks to redefine sanity within an environmental context. It contends that seeking to heal the soul without reference to the ecological system of which we are an integral part is a form of self-destructive blindness. Ecopyschologists are drawing upon the ecological sciences to reexamine the human psyche as an integral part of the web of nature.                                                                 (Roszak, 1995, pg. xvi)      Why has the process of building relationships with animals and the wilderness been demonstrated to be so consistently therapeutic for young people? Consider it this way, the most common characteristic of at risk (and often special needs) children and youth in America today is that they have troubled connections with troubled systems (e.g. troubled schools, troubled families, troubled mental health and juvenile justice systems, etc.). When children and youth are given the opportunity to connect into the wellness of nature, whether that takes the form of a meaningful relationship with a horse or a connecting with the majesty of a hardwood forest (or endless other possibilities), they are granted by that opportunity a connecting into a system that is already well. Stated another way, the nature of wellness can readily be discovered and connected with, within the wellness inherent in the natural world. We can all find sources of strength and renewal of spirit in the earth and the cycles of nature. The processes of birth, growth, death, decay and regeneration that occur in the seasons, the plants and animals, and the soil, are models for our growth and for human community. Supporting Natural Growth and Healing A culture that alienates itself from the very ground of its own being---from wilderness outside (that is to say, wild nature, the wild, self-contained, self-informing ecosystems) and from that other wilderness within---is doomed to a very destructive behavior, ultimately perhaps self-destructive behavior                          (Snyder, As cited in Roszak, 1995, p. 184).      The question concerning children and youth at risk is not whether we want to help them grow and flourish as human beings in ways that honor their natures. Of course we do. The real question is how do we propose to accomplish that? Our answer to that question is relatively simple and straightforward; find ways to connect young people into the wellness of the natural world while simultaneously identifying and explicitly teaching the healthy values and life affirming principles that are to be readily found there. For instance, a meaningful relationship with a horse by the very nature of the relationship `naturally' teaches responsibility (through the need for meeting the basic needs of the horse), caring (through the love and caring that develops between horse and rider), respect (through the inevitable acknowledgment that the horse has a mind of his or her own) and honesty (since we can't long portray ourselves as better than we are in our abilities and skills before our personal safety becomes an issue). It is no accident that the values found and naturally acquired through a meaningful connection with a horse, also reflect the values mindfully and traditionally embraced by the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, 4-H, and the YMCA/YWCA.  As traditions of Native American wisdom have long observed, the true nature of growth and healing can only be discovered by maintaining a meaningful connection with the natural world. Summary `Valuing' the Natural World All educational, therapeutic and vocational programs teach values - whether or not they have adopted a specific program to that end. The rules (and who makes them), the programs, the culture, and climate - all send messages about what matters (even if they are sent in unintentional ways and received unconsciously). There is no such thing as a value-free system. At Kamp Kessa we believe that to support our youth in the healthiest sense means providing for them the opportunity to connect into the wellness of the natural world while focusing on teaching that clearly identifies and is explicitly designed to teach values related to personal, family, community and earthly wellness. As the natural world teaches us, none of these are separate issues. Some call what we are doing character education, some call it adventure education, some call it outdoor experiential education, we call it using horses and the wilderness to teach the power of big ideas and the truth of larger purposes. This is the essence of why we uses horses, and why we have made it our life's work to provide at-risk and special needs youth the opportunity to be in natural settings. To us what we are attempting to do is not just `recreation', its re-creation. Grandfather, Look at our brokeness. We know that in all creation Only the human family Has strayed from the sacred way. We know that we are the ones Who are divided And we are the ones Who must come back together To walk in the sacred way Grandfather, Sacred One, Teach us love, compassion, honor That we may heal the earth                                     And heal each other.       Ojibway prayer                   `Trust in God; but tie your horse tight' Publisher Wanted! (All proceeds benefit the initiatives of Sheltered Risks Incorporated, a nonprofit 501.c(3) corporation.)