OklahomaHorses Magazine March 2021

WRITTEN BY: Lauren Cavagnolo PHOTOS BY: Cindy Alvarez A boy stands in the middle of an arena entwined with a horse, the large animal’s head and neck wrapped around his body in a hug. Sobbing, the boy says he doesn’t want to be this way anymore and is ready to change. Just moments earlier, the boy had been terrified to enter the arena with that same horse after it charged at the boy. The boy had been heck- ling the horse at the end of a group therapy session just the week before and was genuinely surprised that the horse had not forgotten. “That moment was an ‘aha’ catalyst moment for him because horses are really good at reflecting back how we are and who we are. The boy saw something for the first time about the way he was, and he didn’t like it and wanted to change. And he did,” said Equine Counselor Johnny Clark, LMSW. “There are miraculous things that go on like that pretty much every time you see a boy and a horse together, and it is just truly remarkable what happens every day there,” Clark continued. “And I get to be a part of it. Definitely, I’m blessed to be around the boys.” Clark joined the Tulsa Boys’ Home in 2008 to lead and help develop its Equine Therapy Program after spending 25 years at Cookson Hills leading a similar program. Tulsa Boys’ Home, founded in 1918, is the first and largest treatment facility for troubled boys in Oklahoma, according to its website. Tulsa Boys’ Home Equine Therapy Program Spurring wayward boy 14 OklahomaHorses • March/April 2021