Wyoming Advanced Horsemanship

This course is designed for intermediate and advanced riders who want to expand their riding skills while experiencing the adventure of the Wild West. Equestrian instruction includes bareback riding and trail equitation activities such as crossing obstacles, turning on forehand/haunches, and opening/closing gates. Western skills will also be a major focus of this course including: barrel racing, pole bending, and team penning. The grand finale is participation in the Dubois Rodeo as a contestant in the barrel racing and Guest Ranch calf roping events. And, of course, you will also have time to enjoy a few incredible trails in and around Warm Springs Canyon.

SOAR is permitted to provide day-use trail rides in the Shoshone National Forest through a Special Use permit with the National Forest Service. Day rides are conducted with the Wyoming Standard, Academic Discovery, Expedition, and Advanced Horsemanship courses. SOAR contracts with an outfitter to provide Horsepacking (Progressive Pack Trips) services in the Shoshone National Forest. The Horsepacking component is part of the Wyoming Expedition Courses.”

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Philosophy: SOAR believes all individuals identified with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit disorder (AD/HD) possess inherent talents and gifts. These abilities can mean incredible success in adulthood once these students negotiate the challenging obstacles of childhood, adolescence, and a traditional education system, usually unable to respond to individual learning styles.

Therefore, the SOAR model is based on two fundamental principles. First, youth with LD and AD/HD flourish when they are encouraged to focus on their strengths in an experiential setting. The second principle acknowledges that success can be generalized by encouraging our students to develop and utilize strategies, enabling them to compensate for those challenging characteristics of LD and AD/HD. To this end, SOAR staff strive to ensure success for each student across a wide range of experiences. Such success, in turn, builds essential self-esteem and self-confidence.

Based on these two foundations, SOAR participants develop problem solving skills, effective communication strategies, increased self-awareness, and social skills. Program activities include a broad base of wilderness adventure experiences that empower students to make healthy choices, learn more about themselves, overcome challenges, and establish relevance from these experiences to other aspects of their life.

SOAR's Specialty Courses are open to SOAR alumni and students with the maturity and experience level to be successful on the course. Acceptance is conditional on the approval of the course director. Most specialty courses are led by one of SOAR's year-round staff including Jonathan Jones, John Willson and Logan Walters.

SOAR’s programs are designed to allow students the opportunity to increase their independence while away from home. Independence is gained through self-motivation and life skills instruction. With this in mind, we involve our students in many decision making processes, such as setting individual goals, developing group guidelines, as well as trip and meal planning. This also comes into consideration when developing SOAR’s communication policy, detailed in our Parent Handbook.

SOAR is dedicated to serving the needs of individuals with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit disorder (AD/HD) and is proud to be the finest:

LD Summer Camp and ADD / ADHD Adventure Summer Camp