Reins & Reading at Algun Dia Ranch

Home
United States
Silver City, NM
Reins & Reading at Algun Dia Ranch

Equine-assisted reading program for struggling or reluctant readers.

09/10/2026

🐴📚 Another week in the books at Reins & Reading!

Every week I’m reminded that so much of the learning out here happens when the kids don’t even realize they’re “learning.” ❤️

This week we continued building on our relationships with our equine partners—grooming, leading, working through obstacles, reading directions, solving problems and figuring out how to clearly communicate what we’re asking our horses to do.

And the horses, as usual, made sure nobody got away with taking the easy route! 😂 They asked our kiddos to slow down, pay attention, adjust, try again and sometimes try a completely different approach.

Those same skills show up in our literacy work, too.

When a word is hard, we don’t immediately give up. We look for clues. We break it apart. We try something. We make a correction. And we keep going.

That willingness to TRY continues to be one of my favorite things to watch develop in these kids. 💛

There were successes, some challenges, plenty of laughs, lots of horse hair—and so many little moments of confidence quietly growing.

The horses continue to be pretty remarkable teachers, and these kiddos continue to amaze me.

Just another wonderful week at the ranch. 🐴❤️📚

Reins & Reading
Where confidence and reading grow together.

If you have a child who might thrive in a hands-on, horse-powered approach to learning, I’d love to tell you more about our program. Just send me a message. 💌

09/07/2026

🐴 BIG BOY MILESTONE! 🌙😂

Last night Enzo and Pippi had their very first sleepover outside their regular paddock!

They got the little upper pasture all to themselves, while the rest of the herd stayed right next door.

I prepared myself for pacing.
Calling.
Drama.
Possibly some poor life choices. 😂

Instead?

Everybody acted like this was completely normal.

Enzo ate. Pippi ate. The herd hung out nearby. Nobody escaped. Nobody lost their mind. Nobody called management. 😂

And this morning, there they were—perfectly content, having breakfast like seasoned pasture horses.

Meanwhile, I’m standing there thinking, “Excuse me, weren’t you a tiny fuzzy baby approximately 11 minutes ago?” 🥹

Five months old and Enzo’s world just got a little bigger. ❤️🐴

First night out: SUCCESS. ✅

09/05/2026

🐴📚 Another amazing week of Reins & Reading!

This week we welcomed some new kiddos to the ranch—which meant our horses got to make some new friends, too! One of our littles was absolutely determined to spend some time with Hashi, and Hashi was MORE than happy to oblige. She soaked up every bit of the attention and seemed pretty pleased to officially join the Reins & Reading crew. ❤️

Our big focus this week was caring for our equine partners, and we started with something incredibly important:

Look first.

Before we touched a horse, picked up a brush, or grabbed a lead rope, we became horse detectives. 👀🐴

What do the ears tell us?
What do we see in the eyes?
Is the body relaxed or tense?
How is the horse moving?
What might our horse be telling us today?

Then we carried that observation into everything we did. While grooming, we weren’t just brushing—we were checking hooves, legs, skin, eyes and bodies and noticing what our horses enjoyed or didn’t enjoy. While leading and working through obstacles, we thought about which parts of the horse’s body we were asking to move—and just as importantly, what we were asking the horse to think through.

There was literacy tucked into all of it: reading directions, horse-care information and clues; talking through what we observed; learning new vocabulary; explaining our choices; and putting our thoughts into words.

And then there were all those wonderful lessons the horses teach without a worksheet at all—patience, emotional regulation, problem-solving, clear communication, empathy, persistence and leadership.

Sometimes learning to slow yourself down so your horse can understand you is the biggest lesson of the day.

I loved watching these kids really see their horses this week—not simply as something fun to play with, but as partners with needs, feelings, preferences and plenty to communicate.

Another pretty special week at the ranch. 💛🐴📚

Reins & Reading — where confidence and reading grow together.

And if you’re a parent reading this and thinking, “My child might really love this…” I’d be happy to tell you more. Send me a message anytime—you’re always welcome to come learn a little more about Reins & Reading and see if it might be a good fit for your child. 🐴❤️📚

08/29/2026

🐴📚 THIS WEEK AT REINS & READING…

This week was such a beautiful reminder that “reading work” doesn’t always look like sitting at a desk with a worksheet.

Around here, it looked like…

🐴 Reading directions and then leading a horse to figure out where to go next.

🔤 Hunting around the barn for letters, identifying them, and giving their sounds — sometimes with a very interested pony listening nearby.

🧩 Tackling difficult words by learning to sound it out, find a chunk, look for a pattern, or start over and check instead of immediately looking to an adult for the answer.

👣 Walking a horse from sound to sound and working toward putting those individual sounds together into a whole word.

🥁 Using a tongue drum, grooming brushes, and a pony to practice listening, waiting, stopping, starting, and following a sequence — skills that reach far beyond reading.

And one of my favorite moments this week came from a little learner who previously had a very hard time waiting for a drum note to completely disappear before touching the horse.

This week?

She remembered the game herself and wanted to play it again. ❤️

She waited longer.
She listened.
She controlled that impulse to move.
And she was SO proud of herself.

That may look like a tiny thing.

It isn’t.

Because underneath all of these activities, we’re practicing some pretty big things:

Listen.
Notice.
Try.
Wait.
Think.
Try another way.
Come back when you get distracted.
And discover that you can do hard things.

Sometimes the horse is the reason a child is willing to try one more time.

Sometimes reading gives us the job.

Sometimes movement makes learning possible.

And sometimes a pony standing quietly beside you makes something that feels like “school” suddenly not feel like school at all. 🐴❤️

That’s exactly what I want Reins & Reading at Algun Dia Ranch to be.

One child. One horse. One story at a time. 📚🐴

08/27/2026

Looking for some day labor... moving small stone, running a w**d eater...

Pay is $20 per hour. Must be reliable and available asap.

08/26/2026

Our not-so-little-anymore Enzo is making friends in the pasture ❤️

08/21/2026

What a week at Reins & Reading! 🐴📚

This week was full of words, horses, problem-solving, movement, and some pretty wonderful moments of discovery.

Our Word Gates were a favorite! Readers moved through the arena with their horses, tackling different word patterns and decoding challenges while completing an obstacle at each gate. Instead of reading words on a worksheet, they were sounding them out, recognizing patterns, building fluency—and then getting right back to moving and working with their horse.

Other readers took on individual missions around the arena: sorting “word herds,” breaking longer words into smaller chunks, using familiar phonics patterns to decode unfamiliar words, following written clues, and figuring out what to try when the first strategy didn’t work.

And that last one led to one of my favorite moments of the week.

One student was learning to use different tools when her pony wanted to stop and snack instead of paying attention. At the same time, she was discovering that when one way of sounding out a difficult word didn’t work, she could try another strategy there, too.

At the end I asked what she had learned.

“To try things a different way.”

With the horse or with the words?

“Both.” ❤️

THAT is the kind of connection we hope the horses help children discover.

Our younger readers worked on letter sounds and blending, using movement and horses to turn individual sounds into words. We also incorporated the tongue drum into activities involving listening, responding, focus, and emotional regulation.

And, as always, the horses contributed lessons we never could have planned. More than once this week, a horse seemed to mirror the very behavior or challenge a child was working through. Those moments gave us opportunities to notice, wonder, laugh, and sometimes see a situation from a completely different perspective.

There was plenty of reading this week—but there was also persistence, flexibility, confidence, self-correction, problem-solving and learning to stay with something when the answer didn’t come immediately.

One child. One horse. One story at a time. 🐴❤️

Reins & Reading at Algun Dia Ranch

08/16/2026

📚🐴 CHAPTER TWO IS UNDERWAY! 🐴📚

What a great first week back at Reins & Reading!

We welcomed some new faces, reconnected with familiar ones, and got right back to learning alongside our equine partners. ❤️

For some of our youngest readers, that meant starting with the basics—recognizing letters, practicing the sounds they make, and proudly “reading” their alphabet cards to their horses. Others continued building their sight-word recognition and reading confidence.

And we had a very special new member of the herd join the fun—Hashi! 🐴 She met some of our kiddos this week and seemed VERY happy with all the attention!

But as always, the learning went far beyond reading.

We practiced leading, communicating clearly, paying attention to our horses, trying things that felt a little hard, and discovering that mistakes are perfectly okay. Around here, “I don’t know” is just the beginning of figuring it out.

There were lots of smiles, horse stories, little victories and, most importantly, kids willing to TRY.

I’d say Chapter Two is off to a pretty wonderful start. 💛

📖 + 🐴 = so much more than reading.

Where confidence and reading grow together.

08/11/2026

🐴📚 CHAPTER TWO STARTS TODAY! 📚🐴

I am SO excited to welcome our readers back to the ranch today as we kick off Chapter Two of Reins & Reading! ❤️

This session, we’re diving even deeper into what makes Reins & Reading so special—building reading skills while also growing confidence, communication, leadership, focus, and self-belief alongside our incredible horses.

Our first adventure is Meet the Herd: Every Horse Has a Story. 🐴

Over the next six weeks, our readers will get to know the horses of Algún Día Ranch in a whole new way—learning how horses communicate, exploring different breeds and their histories, practicing leadership, and of course, reading and learning every step of the way.

New activities.
New challenges.
New stories.
And lots of horse-powered learning. ❤️

Chapter Two begins TODAY, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us.

🐴 + 📚 = a whole lot of growing.

08/09/2026

Sessions start this week! Reserve your child's spot today 🐴

Address

35 McMillan Road
Silver City, NM
88061

Telephone

+14132218514

Website

http://www.reinsandreading.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Reins & Reading at Algun Dia Ranch posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The School

Send a message to Reins & Reading at Algun Dia Ranch:

Want your school to be the top-listed School/college in Silver City?