Bridle Up Hope is an international nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to inspire hope, confidence, and resilience in girls and women through horses and habits. Scott Brocato visited Bridle Up Hope’s Las Cruces location to find out more about the organization from its executive director, Kelly Koerper.
Bridle Up Hope Las Cruces sits on four-and-a-quarter acres just south of Mesilla, with seven horses and a pony on its property that is overseen by its executive director, Kelly Koerper.
“We are here to give girls and women an opportunity to be outside with horses, and through that, we hope that they will gain confidence, hope, and resilience,” said Koerper. “Those are the three elements that Bridle Up Hope, the main headquarters, ask us to emphasize; and horses naturally provide that opportunity.”
According to data from from the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 3 in 5 U.S. teen girls have felt persistently sad or hopeless, double that of boys; and that nearly 1 in 3 have seriously considered attempting suicide. Bridle Up Hope’s story begins with one of those girls: Rachel Covey, who loved horses and battled with depression but helped other struggling girls find hope through equestrian training. She finally lost her battle with anxiety and depression in 2012, as Koerper explains.
“Rachel was 21 years of age, and an older sibling in the Covey family, with father Sean and mother Rebecca. And Sean is the son of Stephen R. Covey, author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” So she was the person who really inspired the opportunity to bring up Bridle Up Hope; and what the family did was take “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, and retrofit it into a program for girls and women, which actually teaches so many life skills. And the horses, actually being with the horses, actually makes it easy to learn those.”
The “7 Habits”, from the bestselling book that Koerper mentioned, are incorporated into Bridle Up Hope’s Equine Assisted Learning Curriculum for the girls and women who are part of the program.
“That describes the difference between us and ‘horse therapy’, if you will,” said Koerper. “We do not have licensed therapists. But instead, we have been certified to run the Bridle Up Hope program, which is basically teaching equestrian skills to the max, along with learning the (seven) habits and how they help us with horses and become better horsewomen, and better people at the same time.”
Koerper describes that special bond between girl, or woman, and horse that’s such an important component to Bridle Up Hope’s mission.
“It’s a magical thing, and I think it’s something that’s hard to describe,” Koerper said. “But I feel like horses, in their nature, they enjoy the nurturing that girls and women want to put into them. They are large and powerful animals; they are romantic; they are beautiful. And so there’s just something about them that’s attractive to girls and women.
“I think the conquest of a horse, or gaining an understanding with a horse, is just a feel-good experience. And for some reason, it’s just kind of one of those magical, beautiful things in life.”
Bridle Up Hope focuses on what they call The Three Pillars: the horses themselves; the horses’ habits; and service, where the students work on the ground with their barn leads, who help keep the students safe while doing all the horse chores.
“Now, that component of service is really important, because we learn to understand horses a lot better when we’re on the ground with them,” Koerper said. “And also, we give back to the barn, and we also have a program where every ten hours of service to the horses provides a free lesson. And we do that for life.”
The students who attend Bridle Up Hope are also subject to an extensive code of conduct.
“We like to keep our language clean, we like to dress appropriately and safely,” said Koerper. “We can’t harass each other or bully each other, or bully the horses or bully the cats. We just expect great behavior and great attitudes. We want to speak positively and support each other.”
Penny Payne is a former Bridle Up Hope student, who now works with their board. She described how working with horses taught her boundaries.
“So when you start working around an animal that could potentially, you know, injure you—‘cause it’s so big, right? And it’s a prey animal, so it tends to be flighty or whatever—you learn these safety skills, so you begin with that end in mind. And there are certain boundaries that come into play as you’re doing this, like you need to know where you are physically and where the horse is physically; and be aware of that. And I thought that was a cool concept.”
For executive director Kelly Koerper, it’s been a joy to be able to provide that and other concepts to young girls and women.
“Awhile back, I was exploring, why do horses help people? Why do horses help girls? And I went on kind of a rabbit hole of reading books and studying it. And then our dear friends, Barry and Brenda Thatcher, relatives of the Covey family, they kept mentioning to me ‘Bridle Up Hope! Bridle Up Hope!’. And I finally took a look at the website and decided, “you know, this might be something I could do.”
And she’s been doing it since she was first certified in October 2023.
