By Parisa Burton
Nation & World Editor
Hope’s Promise, a non-profit organization located in Chester, N.J., founded in 2012 by Director Maureen Coultas, offers a wide array of programs to benefit diverse populations using full-sized and miniature therapy horses.
Since its inception, Hope’s Promise has visited 82 schools and colleges. Students at the College may have had the opportunity to interact with the miniature horses, Noble Attitude and Ravi, as they have made repeat visits during the annual Thrive Wellness Expo.
Its mission is to “provide physical, mental and emotional support and to teach new skills to a diverse range of children and adults with disabilities through equine assisted activities.”
Coultas is a lifelong horse rider and started saving for her first horse at 8 years old. She made this dream come true in 2000 at age 40, with the purchase of an Appaloosa horse named Chief. However, she did not foresee the life-changing impact she would make on tens of thousands of people.
As a stay-at-home mother to four daughters, she purchased Chief as a personal escape. Coultas suffered abuse at the hands of her mother from infancy until the age of 20 and lives with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result. Getting on Chief’s back for the first time was the only remedy that truly brought her solace.
“I’ve been in all kinds of therapy, and they’ve definitely helped, but when I would get on Chief’s back, it would go away and nothing ever did that,” Coultas said. “My days were so hard because all of my memories were repressed, so if I had like one minute of a day that was good, that was a lot. But with having Chief, it got to be more and more.”
Growing up, she was taught that she didn’t deserve good things and that if life started to go well, something bad was bound to happen. Leading up to her mother’s death, Coultas became her primary caregiver. After her passing, Coultas used the inheritance to purchase Chief.
Prior to making the decision, she struggled with guilt and feelings of selfishness for wanting something for herself. She prayed for God asking for a sign — and received two.
“There was a cloud and the rays of the sun were shining behind it, and the cloud was shaped like the head and neck and the front part of the body of a horse like it was galloping,” Coultas said. “And this is even weirder — I arranged to get him, and someone was like, ‘Would this Saturday, three weeks from now be good for you?’ and I was like ‘yeah.’ Well, it turned out it was my mother’s birthday, the first one after she died.”
At the time, Coultas was teaching lessons at a barn when she and her husband decided to move. She envisioned having a place where she could start her own therapeutic riding program, hoping to bring the same sense of healing to others like Chief had brought her.
She initially wanted to bring Chief to nursing homes and other care facilities, but quickly learned full-sized animals weren’t allowed in these indoor spaces. That’s when she discovered miniature horses existed and began to invest. Today, Hope’s Promise Farm has five miniature horses, two ponies and two full-size riding horses.
The organization provides a range of six total services, including equine therapy visits, a reading and informational program, riding and horsemanship, and equine-assisted empowerment.
The purpose of the therapy visits is to promote mental wellness and provide stress relief to people who feel alone or isolated. Beyond academic environments, this initiative has been brought to over 400 nursing homes, assisted living facilities, memory care centers, rehabs and personal visits, specifically targeting elderly, sick and disabled populations.
The reading program educates participants on the therapeutic power of horses, encouraging open discussions about how the animal has helped them overcome fears, self-doubt and other challenges. This service has reached 149 library programs, 42 school programs and 15 senior centers. These visits feature special appearances from miniature horses Michelangelo or Noble Attitude.
“Two of our miniature horses wrote their autobiography,” Coultas said. “That’s what I tell the children. They take their books to libraries and schools. Children learn how horses help people in different ways.”
Michelangelo’s book, “Michelangelo, The Little Therapy Horse,” educates readers about miniature horses like himself. He sometimes brings along a book about his full-sized friend, Chief, titled “My Friend Chief, The Story of a Therapeutic Riding Horse,” which offers insights into therapeutic horseback riding. Noble Attitude also shares his own picture book, “Noble Attitude, The Little Therapy Horse,” which tells the story of his life and work as a miniature therapy horse.
The assisted empowerment initiative is a year-long program designed to support at-risk and vulnerable youth, primarily in urban areas, including students with behavioral issues. The program focuses on developing leadership, self-esteem, patience, responsibility and teamwork, among other essential skills.
The program consists of eight visits to a school with one to two miniature horses, followed by a trip where students accompany the miniatures to a local facility and concludes with a visit to the farm, where the children have the opportunity to interact with a full-sized horse for the first time.
Students learn everything from safety around horses to grooming and leading them. Hope’s Promise’s largest horse weighs about 1,200 pounds, and working with such large animals provides a sense of empowerment for students.
“They can literally ask the horse to back up and move his rear end to the right side or left without touching him,” Coultas said. “So imagine thinking you have no power in this world or life and you just got a 1,200 pound horse to move where you wanted with just your body language.”
The riding and horsemanship program teaches learners with physical disabilities, diseases, illnesses and disadvantaged backgrounds how to communicate directions to horses. In addition to improving muscle strength, balance and reducing anxiety, therapeutic riding has also been shown to help with walking, breathing, swallowing, eating and speech.
“When school groups come, the teachers really know the children that they bring, but I don’t know them as well as the teachers,” Coultas said. “So, children who have autism and have never spoken before speak for the first time like a sentence when they’re talking to the horse. The teachers would be crying and I thought I did something wrong, and they’re like, ‘he’s never spoken a full sentence before.’”
Coultas also noted that she has taught students who were unable to walk independently, but after a riding lesson, some were able to walk with a walker. She explained that the rhythmic movement of the horse mimics the motion of walking, helping to engage the muscles needed for mobility once off the horse.
Another significant memory Coultas recalled took place during a visit to a nursing home. Upon entering the facility with one of the miniature horses, she noticed a man on the far side of the room become very emotional. Someone explained to her in private that the man was originally from France and hidden on a farm as a child during the Holocaust.
“That’s why he didn’t die,” Coultas said. “He hadn’t been around horses, I think since then. It was such a horrible time in history but like the memories of being on the farm, he knew saved him.”
As for the future of Hope’s Promise, Coultas’ hope is to grow the organization just enough to meet demand, as she currently manages all the programs, visits and lessons herself, often forced to turn down opportunities. Still, she still wants to preserve its intimacy and remain small to prioritize individualized attention and support.
“I see how much the horses help people and I would love for this to continue. I would love to have a place that’s not our home where the horses are, and we’re all volunteer run, so I would love to have staff and I could eventually act as a consultant and let other people take over and grow it,” Coultas said.
