Welcome to Sadie Grove Farm

by Melanie Ernould, Psy.D. and Taylor Urban

One by one, cars pulled up by the green gate with rusty metal butterflies and the campers piled out. They walked down the long dusty driveway, past the rainbow flag, and the horses glanced up from their breakfast to watch them. It’s another day of camp at Sadie Grove Farm and this group’s excitement to be together was electric.

They didn’t know each other before they came from different schools and communities all across the Sacramento area to be together at farm camp. They were a ragtag group whose parents individually feared they’d struggle to make friends or fit in; some struggled with anxiety, had experienced bullying, identified as queer, or came out by week’s end, were neurodivergent; and all wanted to come to farm camp to ride horses or be with animals. Yet somehow together, amongst the dust and poo, and after a week of frolicking with animals, they found connection and belonging.

Sadie Grove Farm is the passion project of Dr. Melanie Ernould, a child clinical psychologist, and Taylor Urban, her animalloving partner. Melanie says, “My doctoral dissertation was a treatment manual for a support group for LGBTQ+ kids who had experienced bullying. Many years later, when we started the farm, we wanted to create a safe place for like-minded people to be able to enjoy horses and the farm experience safely. I inadvertently ended up merging the two very different areas of my life. I think it’s my calling.”

The camps happen several times over Summer and sometimes the year. The concept was born of a desire to save animals and create a full circle experience. “Taylor and I rehabilitate the animals, the children reap the benefits of the animals, and then they give back to the animals during their time here, which is also part of their own healing experience,” Melanie says. The camps are considered to be inclusive and therapeuticallyinclined, integrating a horse, farm, nature, and art camp into one. While they are not “therapy” per se, they are therapeutic in that the environment, activities, and accepting social experience provides a healing effect and experience unlike any other.

While the camps are intentionally free-range, giving the children opportunities to find quiet moments of connection with animals, Melanie intentionally incorporates animal-assisted therapeutic activities. In one such activity, Melanie teaches a child how to direct a horse to move around the perimeter of a circular pen while the child stands in the center. The child controls the horse’s direction and speed with only body movements and energy and nothing attached to the horse. It is in this moment of controlling a thousand pound animal with only a minor change of body posture, that a child who feels out of control in so many aspects of their life, might come into their own. When the child who is afraid to take up space in their regular world finds it within themselves to lift themselves up and command the energy in that pen, and the horse responds to that energy appropriately, something shifts within the child and a tiny seed of confidence grows.

Campers also get an opportunity to create something meaningful, beautiful, and natural to take home. These creations are seen from conception to finish throughout the week. For example, during Spring, campers were able to process wool directly from the sheep to woven yarn and felted creations. Melanie believes that making with one’s hands and working with natural materials is therapeutic and rare grounding activities. These activities are an important piece of the camp’s structure.

In addition to the children’s camps at Sadie Grove Farm, they also offer LGBTQ+ friendly riding lessons for children and adults on safe, well-trained lesson horses. Animals are also boarded at the farm, providing an opportunity for people to have farm animals who don’t have the appropriate space for them at home. Similarly, the farm can also offer the lease of horses, providing the experience of owning a horse at much lower cost and care. Lastly, Dr. Melanie offers individual farm therapy and animal-assisted therapy to children and adults outside of the context of camp.

The benefit of equine activities is that one gets to practice connection, vulnerability, and safe boundaries with beings who are oftentimes easier to be with than other humans. The unfortunate reality for the LGBTQ+ community is that too often the gatekeepers to those beings tend to be humans who are hostile to the community. Alternatively, Sadie Grove Farm provides a safe and nurturing space for every human to experience farm life and animal connection.

Come pet a goat, ride a horse, hug a chicken, kiss a pig, get dirty, and be gay, at Sadie Grove Farm!

For more information visit; www.sadiegrovefarm.com