About Us

OUR HISTORY

First, here are some facts.  An estimated one in four U.S. children experiences abuse or neglect.  Child maltreatment can cause lifelong physical, emotional, and behavioral problems, leading to multigenerational impacts.  They are at increased risk for anxiety, depression, delinquency, difficulty in school, and early sexual activity.  Child maltreatment can cause toxic stress that disrupts brain and physical development, increasing the risk for numerous health problems in adulthood, such as heart disease, cancer, substance abuse, and mental illness.  The harmful effects of child maltreatment can be interrupted by stable and nurturing relationships, environments, and trauma-informed support services.
Link to Stats

The Founders of Mustard Seed Ranch were becoming increasingly aware of these child maltreatment statistics in California and decided to stand up and implement some solutions.

 

THE VISION

The vision was to provide the youth with a safe place where they would have the opportunity to participate in therapy services and build hands-on skills in a ranch environment.  Through great partnerships, they pulled together resources to buy a ranch in Ridgeway, Colorado.  However, this property did not work out.  So, in 1999, we purchased a ranch in Warner Springs, California, in San Diego County, with the money from the sale of the Ridgeway property. The ranch had cows, horses, lambs, goats, sheep, and pigs.  Initially, we had youth participating in services with all these animals; however, horses immediately started to stand out as the therapeutic catalysts for youth, with the horse’s honest reflection and willingness to enter relationships with the kids.   

Mustard Seed Ranch, Inc. (MSR) was incorporated as a 501(c)3 in 2002 with the vision to provide life-experience programs to youth who have suffered trauma and neglect to help them acquire the skills needed to live a healthy life.  We would teach these life experiences experientially by exposing the kids to horsemanship skills and responsibilities. 

In 2006, Mustard Seed Ranch, Inc. recruited a group of professionals skilled in mental health services for youth, including Dr. John Townsend, horse professionals, and ministers, to create a curriculum to address youth experiencing struggles from being exposed to trauma.  

Utilizing Dr. Townsend’s work in character growth as a building block for positive change, the team identified more than twenty-five core relationship issues faced by children suffering from abuse and neglect.  We determined these relationship modules as areas the youth needed to gain skills to be successful in their future relationships.  

Next, we created horse activities to metaphorically address the core relationship issues and help the youth establish healthy skills to mitigate those issues.  As the youth engaged in the horsemanship lessons, the activities would allow them to increase their skills or abilities to complete the activities.  The “build them up” program strengthens skills that are easily replicated in other environments and improves their ability to maintain healthy relationships and leave the unhealthy relationship patterns in the past.  

Back at Warner Springs Ranch, it became apparent that providers were having difficulty bringing youth out to our remote location, and once again, Mustard Seed Ranch had to pivot.  We donated the Warner Springs property to the Orange County Rescue Mission.  We decided to narrow our focus and offer the healing power of horses to youth at risk in urban locations to reduce transportation barriers.  So, in 2007, at Hanson’s Quarter Horses in San Juan Capistrano, we started providing our services to youth-at-risk, leasing horse use and arena space so that we are at a convenient location for youth to heal from our specialized services.  

Since then, we have expanded to provide specialized equine services to youth in multiple locations, from Northern San Diego to LA County.  In addition, in 2015, we expanded our services to include Evergreen, Colorado, to serve Denver and the surrounding areas.  To provide these services, MSR created partnerships with group homes, behavioral health agencies, and inpatient programs to bring their youth clientele to our multiple horse facility locations.  

Additionally, in 2015 MSR began hiring qualified mental health therapists to facilitate the program to address further the trauma present in the youth we served.  Today, all our facilitators in both states are mental health therapists with various training in the equine-assisted activities and therapies industry.  The equine curriculum has shifted to a therapeutic approach of the most relevant relationship skills needed by youth with trauma.