As a child growing up near Mount Vernon, Ohio, Becca Snider had horses and enjoyed riding and spending time with them. Her job as a mental health therapist with Wawasee High School and Wawasee Middle School has provided an expression for her love of students and helping others.

During the recent fall break, Snider combined those passions by attending a seminar in New Hampshire through EAGALA, where she became certified as a mental health professional for the program.

“Founded in 1999, EAGALA is the leading international nonprofit association of professionals using equine therapy to address mental heath and human development needs. The vision is that every person worldwide will have access to these services known as Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Equine Assisted Learning,” according to the EAGALA website, www.eagala.org.

EGALA has more than 4,000 members in 49 countries. Facilitators must adhere to ethical standards and it is a non-profit, tax deductible group.

Snider is excited to see the pieces fall into place for the program to come to the Wawasee area. The first step was becoming certified. “EGLALA is different in that all the work with the horse is done with the people on the ground,” she explained. “Also it is a complete team approach. The team is the equine specialist, a mental health professional and horses working together with clients during the sessions.

“I like it because it is focused on solutions that the clients can arrive at themselves when given the opportunity to discover them. It uses deliberate techniques where the horses serve as metaphors in specific, ground based experiences. It is different than the physical therapy approach used at Magical Meadows and Loveway because it serves people with different needs than those programs do,” she added.

Now she hopes to find someone in the area with horses willing to work with her. She stated, “I’m just at the beginning of this journey and am working on a long term goal of partnering with the schools, Bowen Center and private individuals to put the program into practice.”

This is Snider’s eighth year working at Wawasee. Her path from Ohio led her to Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, where she met her husband, Lee Snider, a New Paris native. Her undergraduate degree from IWU was in business and psychology and she went on to earn a master of arts degree in counseling from Grace College, Winona Lake. A sojourn in Indianapolis intervened between the two degrees.

She received her first pony when she was 2-years-old and had horses until she went to college. Now, she enjoys riding a friend’s horses whenever possible.

As Snider’s husband is the principal of Harrison Elementary, Warsaw, she explained, “We are both invested in the schools in our communities. I coach volleyball at Wawasee Middle School and I play volleyball with my husband in Warsaw.” The couple is actively involved with Christ Covenant Church and enjoy the lakes and outdoor activities in general.

“I’m so excited about the EAGALA program and hope others will be, too. The methods are research based and data has been collected on the effectiveness internationally. There is a strong program in the Indianapolis area and one underway in Fort Wayne but nothing here,” she concluded.