Horse Barn Vocational Rehab

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20d •

Meet Your Instructor: Gina McCutchen Hello, fellow barn owners and equine enthusiasts! I'm Gina, and I've spent the last 17 years learning exactly what you're about to discover - how to transform a struggling lesson barn into a thriving, purpose-driven business that serves your entire community. When I took over DreamPower Therapy in 2009, I inherited both a dream and a challenge familiar to many of you: how to keep a barn financially sustainable while staying true to our mission of making horses accessible to everyone. Through years of trial, error, and eventual success, I discovered that Vocational Rehabilitation partnerships weren't just a funding stream - they were the key to giving our barns a vital role in our communities again. As a PATH International Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor, Certified Peer Specialist, and Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist, I've had the privilege of creating and implementing one of Georgia's unique VR programs. I've navigated the state contracting process, developed curricula that transforms everyday barn tasks into legitimate job training, and watched countless individuals gain employment skills while our horses returned to their historical role as partners in human development. But my journey started long before the certifications. I'm a woman in long-term recovery (since 1987), an entrepreneur who opened her first business at 22 with an SBA loan, and someone who's experienced both the struggles of keeping a barn afloat and the joy of watching it flourish with purpose. I've been through divorces, business closures, and countless moments of wondering if I could keep the barn doors open another month. I get it. What drives me now is a vision I'm passionate about sharing with you: imagine small lesson barns across the country becoming self-sustainable, vital community resources. Picture your horses not just teaching riding lessons to those who can afford them, but providing life-changing vocational training funded by state and federal programs. Envision consistent, weather-independent revenue that lets you focus on what you love - working with horses and changing lives.

Gina McCutchen

20d •

General discussion

Let’s s get to know each other 🐴😊

We are HERD animals, as much as the horses we love are. So let's get to know each other & then share this group to strengthen it with numbers to make a stampede into the dying horse industry! Please describe what you see your place in a herd is and how you'll use it for your own and other's benefit in this group. We would all love to see your favorite pic of you and a beloved horse.(Your WHY- a pic that shows why horses are important to you.) I'll go first. Of course I'm an Alpha Mare. Like the Alpha Mare of Alpha Mares. Is there such a thing as a Sigma mare? Anyways, I see this controlling bossiness being of benefit to myself and others in this group because someone HAS to go first, to scout the path and make sure things are safe & good for the herd, note the pitfalls and places to "get fed" and rest while maintaining social boundaries and structure. I'll share my leadership experience, strength and hope of forging new programs into our beloved horse industry that are FUN, inclusive and vital to sustain the horse/human relationship so our barns can THRIVE, instead of fight just to barely survive. We have a prehistoric connection to horses, evolving and mirroring our social structures along side each other since the dawn of civilization. I believe we can track the deterioration of our society to when we started NOT having horses as part of our everyday lives. Every State has a Department of Labor. Every Department of Labor has a Vocational Rehabilitation Agency for assisting people with handicaps and disabilities to get the training and education they need to get employment. Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (GVRA) pays up to $50 per hour per person for job training skills. Dream Power Therapy is the ONLY agricultural job training vendor in the Southeastern United States. I Know, to the core of my being, that having a well run Horse Barn Vocational Rehabilitation Training Program in every major city or town in the USA will reconnect humans with horses; updating our relationship to current societal needs and trends while revitalizing the now exclusive industry with everyday work interactions that are as essential to the people working the barns as the horses in them.

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