Mounted Eagles

Mission Statement: Mounted Eagles enhances the lives of program participants, volunteers, and the community by providing a safe and enjoyable environment where individuals with special needs benefit from therapeutic, developmental, and educational equine-assisted activities.

Mounted Eagles offers wonderful opportunities for kids—and adults—to volunteer. You can work around horses while helping those less fortunate. It just doesn't get much better than that.

The hearts, hands, and hooves behind Mounted Eagles have been fulfilling their mission since 1992. From the days in Susie Baillif’s backyard, when she had one horse, three riders, and a desire to help people, the organization has gone on to forge relationships with groups like the Air Warrior Courage Foundation, and earn international accreditation through the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA).
• Lessons are held at the Spirit Horse Center, just south of Brainerd on Highway 371 at 8683 50th Avenue.
• Scholarships are available so that ability to pay is not a barrier to student participation.
• The horses are carefully selected and evaluated on the basis of their dispositions and physical attributes. Riders are paired with the horse and the volunteers who best meet their emotional and physical needs.
• Four of the Mounted Eagles instructors are certified by the NARHA.

“There is an immediate bond, a connection, between the horses and these special people,” says Aggie Stroot, executive director. “Our volunteers are people who are committed to wanting to help people with challenges, and who also love being around horses.”

That combination creates a magical place where horses gently carry riders past the barriers of their everyday existence.

For more information, call (218) 568-5883 or 1-888-828-9920, or visit their website, www.mountedeagles.org.