By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

WAYNESVILLE, Ohio — River of Hope Ranch in Waynesville is a Christian non-profit organization offering mental health counseling to children and teens using a unique and innovative tool - horses.
Three geldings (Dirty Barry, Merlin and Romeo) and one mare (Miss Muffit) work closely with licensed therapist Josie Muterspaw and two other co-founders of River of Hope Ranch (Jodi Morris and Marne Baltes) go to work each week with children and even adults who need help in sorting out life’s obstacles.
“Together with a professional counselor and an equine specialist, one gentle, loving horse can help a child in pain find hope and healing,” Morris said. “The horse is used as a tool to improve the emotional, behavioral and mental well being of children, teens and families. The focus is not about recreation or riding, but about setting up problem-solving activities that enhance growth and learning and create self-awareness.”
River of Hope Ranch offers therapy services for individual children, groups and families on 31 acres of rolling hills.
“Horses have proven to be animals that can heal,” Morris said. “As prey animals, horses are incredibly adept at reading and responding to subtle body language and emotions.
“This enables horses to be honest teachers that can reveal hidden trauma and fears within people. Our mission is to establish an environment where hurting children and families can find hope and healing through God’s word and equine-assisted psychotherapy.”
River of Hope with its horses can assist those with major life changes (divorce, grief, loss), anxiety, depression, behavioral difficulties, post-traumatic stress, anger management, low self-esteem, eating disorders and relationship problems. The ranch tries to instill improvement of teamwork, leadership and problem-solving skills.
“We offer help to ages 6 and up,” Morris said. “We deal with a lot of troubled teenagers and the 13-15 age group is the volatile age. We deal with 40 children at any given time. We also have a single-mom ministry. Our goal is to teach them how to cope with problems and not just sweep them aside. And we do it with horses. Horses require hard work to be successful with the kids, they don’t allow one to take the easy way out.”
River of Hope Ranch is located at Cross Creek Stables just north of Waynesville. This setting is serene and peaceful. A sign on a stable fence says it all: “From small beginnings come great things.”
“At River of Hope Ranch we believe in providing a natural environment that extends beyond a traditional therapy room,” Morris added.