Presented by
The Take the Reins Project presented by Alltech is an education initiative pairing local schools with the Kentucky Equine Humane Center to supplement core curriculum in areas of math, science, writing, art, and public speaking. The horses enhance learning outcomes such as responsibility, care, and the importance of giving back. Each school participating in the Take the Reins Project “fosters” a horse from the Center for one school year with the understanding (and hope) that the horse could be adopted. The fostered horse serves as the cornerstone for the school’s curriculum and engagement with the Center.
2018 Summer Camps with Lansdowne and Jessamine County
We partnered up with Jessamine County and Lansdowne summer camps this summer. Here are some pictures from our visits with them and their visits with us!
2017-2018
The KyEHC partnered with Ashland Elementary, Christ the King Elementary, and Lansdowne Elementary schools, focusing on fourth graders. Lansdowne chose Lobo, Ashland chose Smoky, and Christ the King chose Kya to follow through the school year. Each school has a couple of field trips to the Center to meet the horse they are fostering, learn how a horse chews and digests food, breathes through its nose, and gets its feet trimmed. They also have visited the equine feed research barn at Alltech, as well as had visiting speakers do presentations at their schools. They have learned about nutrition, anatomy of the horse, and the history of how the horse has adapted to its environment, and different breeds developed during its long partnership with mankind.
Christ The King School visits with “their” horse Kya and our vet Dr. Marty Riney
Dr. Marty Riney visits Lansdowne Elem.
Ashland meets “their” horse, Smokey and farrier James Guthrie gives a demo on what a farrier does.
2017 Summer Camp
Lansdowne Elementary School provided their refugee students with a summer camp experience using Take the Reins Project presented by Alltech. Among the horses they met was Millie, who suffered a traumatic experience before coming to the Center, and she taught the kids how to stay positive to look for a better life.
2016-2017
Julius Marks Elementary School fourth grade students met Patrick’s Bullseye, the horse that they supported through this program!
At Alltech, the students learned about nutrition and weighed a horse and hay, doing math to determine how many pounds of hay a horse eating 2% of its body weight should consume.