PRICE HILL, Ohio – It’s kind of a pleasant surprise to be in the middle of very urban Price Hill, and see horses grazing in an open pasture, a large, beautiful barn and gardens, and hear chickens clucking.

It’s all part of Horses on the Hill (HOTH), a program that combines horse therapy, urban farming and horticulture to serve the people in the neighborhood. Its mission is to provide a space for healing and to cultivate growth in the lives of those who have experienced severe trauma. The program welcomes at-risk youth, women in recovery, abuse survivors and individuals seeking emotional and mental healing.

“The horses are such a gift because they, being prey animals, are very sensitive to their environment,” said Mackenzie Hudson, HOTH program director. “It sounds odd, but when you are interacting with horses, they can sense your heart rate; they are very present with you, and can kind of read how you are doing emotionally.”

To be with the horse, the participants need to develop confidence and focus, to be assertive; they must learn to trust the horses. They are gaining the skills they may have lost or never gained because of the trauma they have encountered. If the participant does not have those skills, the horses are a great motivator toward developing them.

HOTH is a part of BLOC (Believing and Living One Christ) ministries. BLOC serves the people who live in the area and provides them with food, shelter, steps to recovery, job placement and training, and builds holistic wellness, Hudson said. BLOC has been around for 28 years and has more than 20 ministries in the neighborhood.

“We are a faith-based ministry,” Hudson said. “All the work we do, we hope points people to a relationship with Christ.

For eight years, BLOC founders Dwight and Stephanie Young wanted to bring horses into the lives of the people they worked with, but had no idea how to start a horse farm in the middle of Price Hill. But they were determined.

“It was all privately funded,” Hudson said. “That’s what got us the barn, about a million-dollar project. They worked for over eight years to gain the momentum, to get approval from the city, and to find the land. It was a journey. Now we’re here; we have been here for over three years.”

HOTH customizes a care plan for each individual who comes in to decide what skills they want to develop and what they want to work on.

“Then we create a plan for them to move forward and learn, and start to build those skills alongside our equine specialists, in the barn or in nature,” Hudson said. “We utilize a lot of nature-based work, which is great.”

They also work in group settings where individuals from a residential program might work on team building and developing healthy relationships, or just for a respite experience, maybe they need a space to come and refresh.

“Then, separate from that, we do job training with adults with disabilities,” Hudson said. “They come in and help care for the horses, and manage the barn, and learn the skills they might later be able to translate into a job.”

Most of the work with horses is on the ground, Hudson said. Nearly all the clients have never been around horses and might find it frightening to climb on a horse’s back. Also, insurance often draws a line between recreational horse therapy and riding, which it will not cover.

“I think riding is very therapeutic, but mainly, we want individuals to build that relationship of trust on the ground, and then translate that into the saddle when they’re ready,” Hudson said. “We have a work-to-ride program for our youth who have progressed so far in their individualized program, have built the skills, built the relationship, done the work. Then we invite them to join our work-to-ride program, where you come in and take care of the horses, do chores, and then have a riding lesson.”

Currently, HOTH has three full-sized horses, Sid, Buddy and Nacho, and two miniatures, Bucky and Bella. They have plans to adopt another pony and are looking for a riding horse. And in case anyone is intimidated by the horses, there are cats, a bunny and chickens.

The chickens fall under the domain of Mary Beth Knight, the farm-to-table director. Her mission is to educate youth on where food comes from, about healthy eating, how food is fuel for the body, and to fight food insecurity in the neighborhood, Hudson said. She does monthly farmers markets where she offers affordable produce to the neighbors, and she runs various after-school programs.

“She partners with local schools and programs to get a lot of kids on the property, which is cool,” Hudson said. “They help plant and have one-off experiences mostly, to get them a taste of what farm life is like. We often have 50 kids at once and divide them into stations.”

That all takes a lot of people and funding. About 30 volunteers help with HOTH. Funding is mostly private; they can bill Medicaid for some things, and they utilize many grants.

Expansion is ongoing. Besides the barn and indoor arena, HOTH is currently completing a garage, two offices for counseling, and a meeting space. They are also establishing 4-H Clubs and youth programs, and are deepening the urban farming initiatives.

Interestingly, Hudson had no prior experience with horses when Dwight Young asked her to run HOTH. She loved the idea, gradually became familiar with horses, and enjoys working in the beautiful setting.

“I am comfortable with horses, and I do ride, but not well,” she said.