Kira Brazinski, fourteen and missing one leg, urged her six year old dun Mustang, Canyon, to weave through a cloverleaf course of barrels with her mother. In this exercise at a family development seminar, they directed their horses at a walk, each holding the end of a rope. Brazinksi's mother, Kathie, struggled with the novel experiential session, (called Family Fun Days) designed to bridge matters such as communication, boundaries and discipline in the family. She had no knowledge of horses. The session required the horses to go in tandem, but they were anything but stable pals who got along. They switched their ears back fiercely at each other. Their shoulder and haunches veered away to the outside . The program's role reversal method made the son or daughter the instructor: "Hold onto the string, don't let the horse deviate - stay firm in steering him," Kira said to the mother. The team dropped and picked up the rope several times in continuous tries until the horses clearly understood the job was to go through the course together.

The daughter had learned about horses and conveying clear instructions through students at the program called Horse Warriors, named after Marden's ranch in the mountainous wilderness near Jackson, Wyoming. The students are a mix of adolescent kids from various backgrounds, mainly families with harmful patterns of interaction. Some are homeless. The kids, age 11-16, learn to ride bareback.

In equine experiential learning (EAL) sessions, they explore and are coached in such relationship areas as communication, when they learn horses, like humans,  need to be clear on what is asked of them. Their horses include mustangs, a mule, a Nakota (Percheron and mustang) and quarter horses. The Quarter Horse Foundation is one of the sponsors of Horse Warriors.

The mother credited the daughter's ability to verbalize and focus on the needs of her life to her work at Marden's. At fifteen, she had already moved on to being a Horse Warriors student. During that time, the blond haired ,blue eyed girl broke off with a boyfriend. She asserted he was going in a direction that she didn't want to go in her life. Proclaiming her decision, she mused "The horses are easier to work with." The athletic daughter has been featured in a coming television documentary, "Inside Disabled Skiing," where she is shown proficiently skiing and rock wall climbing. Through Marden's encouragement, she has also joined the speech and debating society at school.

At the "Family Fun Day" weekend program, kids and parents do everything in tandem, so kids learn they have to be aware of the other person. Marden says the concept of a parent being taught by offspring can bring out competitiveness in the parent, notes Marden. And it can turn an authority based "I'm the boss, I'm the parent" relationship upside down where the parents get stressed, since most don't have familiarity with horses and they are put in a different role.  Last summer, in the barrel weaving rope exercise, a father's horse swerved outward from the line. "You need to use more left leg," the daughter instructed. "I know how to do this, I'm using my left leg, don't tell me," the father railed. He had ridden Mongolian ponies during work in setting up parks in Mongolia. But it had been more of a rough and ready form - riding fast and not the movements of turning, yielding, etc. So he thought he had learned to ride already. "I'm not being critical, but that is what you need to do," his daughter, unflapplably replied.

This exercise in communication, Marden says, is a lesson for the family interchange within the house. "When a family lives together, you need to keep the love energy up, need to communicate, to do tasks," she explains. "Discipline turns into consequence, not unrelieved pressure. And from the program, kids become more aware of their parents, and parents learn to honor that their kids have an expertise even at a young age. They see their kids take on a leadership role without being disrespectful," Marden explains. "And communication becomes more honest."

At Horse Sense of the Carolinas in Marshall, North Carolina, therapist Robert Jacoby explains the benefit of learning about behavior through the horse. "Equine Assisted Learning can happen in one session. It can take time to build rapport and trust with a therapist," says Jacoby. "With the horse there is an immediacy of response - from the horse and the client. So behavior can be exposed right away."

Says Horse Senses' President Shannon Knapp: "Horses are prey animals and must observe every movement, smell and sound - in case they have to respond to them. They must always be registering and paying attention which makes them excellent barometers for humans." Horses pick up on emotions and whether someone is 'congruent,' meaning they are acting one way, but inside there's a different unaddressed emotional state. This can be the person that doesn't acknowledge anger. "The horse is in the present - he's not thinking about what he ate for dinner last night or will have for breakfast," explains Knapp, about how the horse dynamic facilitates a clearer psychological presence for a human.

In the EAGALA method of Equine Assisted Learning, taught at Horse Sense of the Carolinas, a therapist and an Equine Specialist (trained in the method of behavior learning and skill development through the horse,) facilitate the process. The therapist's role in EAL is to maintain the learning environment and to keep it outside the realm of therapy, moving the client away from deep processing as in psychotherapy to more of a group experience.

The kids write daily in the journal, answering such prompted questions as: "What was hard, or easy about program? Was teaching Mom hard, easy? Was it hard listening to Mom?"