What makes Beartooth MT Ascent so unique? Over 20 years of experience in helping struggling teens and troubled young adults on a family owned and operated ranch with over 40,000 acres and 800 + head of cattle and 40 head of horses. We do not just have a few cows and horses for the troubled teens to “play” with, at Beartooth Mt Ascent young adult life skills program ranch work is a daily necessity! When the young men are challenged to go beyond themselves and get out of their comfort zones because they are needed to assist in the ranch work, real growth and healing takes place. There is no better therapy for a struggling young man with low self-esteem than to feel he has contributed to something greater than himself.

 A young man with substance abuse issues or other negative self-defeating habits is typically very selfish and lives by the three “ism” so prevalent in our youth culture, these are- 1. Individualism: What is in it for me? 2. Hedonism: Does it feel good or is it pleasurable for me? 3. Minimalism: What is the least I can do?

Real ranch work transforms the three “ism” into a new way of living that brings the young man a sense of dignity in knowing who he is and what he is truly capable of doing. The new Christian work ethic the young man will learn through ranch work and his relationships with the staff will change his self-concept from “I can’t” or “I am no good at anything” into “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me”. When this transformation takes place we see “miracles” happen!

On our large scale working cattle ranch there is always work to be done, a variety of job skills, life skills and educational opportunities to be had by all the young men. Because ranch work is seasonal the work never gets to boring, and yet is repetitive enough to allow mastery of the new job skills that the young man has learned.

At Beartooth Mt Ascent we provide ranch work and animal care challenges appropriate to our setting as a working cattle/horse ranch and young adult life/job skills program.  Equine therapy and Natural Horsemanship combined is effective and demonstrates how certain learned, negative behaviors are ineffective. Young, hot-tempered boys get nowhere with a horse by yelling, pushing, shoving, or hitting.

Once a young man can demonstrate to himself that persuasion is achievable through emotional control that demonstrates love and leadership to the horse, the horse will no longer see him as a predator and will come to trust him as his partner. Through gentleness and care for the horse, he begins to realize that there are better ways of communicating to people than the ones he has been using in his daily life. What is more, the young man learns that the results of this new way of communicating are so much more satisfying.

The lessons learned from Natural Horsemanship and Equine Therapy

1.  My aggression will provoke your aggression, which in turn escalates my aggression.
2.  You can change my behavior and reactions by changing your own.
3.  You create your own behavioral problems and solutions.

Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the care and training of horses and equine therapy, where the struggling young man can witness the positive effects of their change in behavior first hand, and to their immediate benefit.

Ranch Work + Equine Therapy =Transformed Lives