Gina Henson and her daughter Ayme Desmond share a deep love and passion for horses they share by offering equine assisted learning.
“I love how compassionate they are, how they can feel your emotions and how empathetic and forgiving they are," said Gina. "They are non-judgmental."
Ayme appreciates the calming nature of horses and said they are the best listeners.
"I love their empathy," she added.
Both women have been riding horses since they were young children.
Gina started when she was five-years-old.
For eight years, her late father, Bob Henson, and her mom, Barb Henson, owned the Soda Creek Ranch - known today as the Fraser River Ranch.
"I instantly loved horses," Gina recalled. "“They gave me an outlet and the freedom to explore. When I would come home from school I would just jump on my horse Spider bareback and literally rode him around the outside of our house."
After her parents sold the ranch and the Hensons moved to Chimney Valley, her relationship with horses persisted.
She became friends with the neighbour kids, who also had horses, and they formed a gymkhana club.
By the time she was 14 she was competing in high school rodeos, doing barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying and breakaway roping.
She went as far as she could locally for the BC High School Rodeo finals and then the National High School Rodeo finals in Rapid City, North Dakota.
"I did not go because my sister was getting married," she said, smiling.
A level one riding coach, Gina started giving riding lessons 23 years ago around the time Ayme was born.
She also led riding camps.
In April 2024, Gina retired from School District 27 where she was a youth worker for 28 years.
Now she works at Nenqayni Wellness Centre as a youth counsellor and offers Equine Assisted Learning sessions privately.
"I know what horses have done for me," she said of why she believes horses can help people develop into more content human beings.
Ayme started cowboying with her father, Reg Desmond, when she was six-years-old on his ranch on Chimney Lake Road, where he ranches today.
She is working as an equine assistant at Nenqayni with the equine assisted learning coach on staff, who encouraged Ayme to look into taking the equine assisted learning training herself.
"I enrolled and took the course in St. Albert, Alberta. in May," Ayme said. "Now I am a certified coach helping the youth and families at Nenqayni and taking on private clients as well."
Horses are intuitive with people’s mental states, she added.
"It's amazing how calming they can be if someone is upset and how even just being in their presence is so relaxing and joyful for the people who work with them."
On a warm Sunday afternoon in early September, Ayme gave a demonstration showing how horses instantly know how a person is feeling.
Leading her 11-year-old horse Billy by a rope she bowed her head low as if she was showing sadness.
Instantly Billy bowed his head low and walked slowly behind her.
A moment later, she held her head up high and started prancing.
Billy followed suit.
When asked if she has had any negative experiences with horses and the youth she works with she said 'not really'.
However if the horses exhibit a small bit of behavioural issues she uses those incidents as teachable moments for the youth.
"If a horse is coming too close to someone's face I will point out that humans can do that and I talk about how we need to set healthy boundaries with our horses and people so we can be safe."
Horses are sensitive to a person's feeling in a good way, she said, noting one of the beautiful aspects of equine assisted learning is the fact clients do not have to verbalize to connect with a horse necessarily.
"We observe the horse's non-verbal cues and can personalize it for the person giving them things they can work on in themselves," Gina explained. "When we pay attention, the horses show us what we need to work on. How we need to dig deeper."
The first time they meet with someone interested in giving equine assisted learning a try, they go for a walk them, taking a horse along to see if will be a good fit.
"We are described as coaches not counsellors," Ayme said. "We work with people on personal development, helping them through mental barriers."
