10040 Highland Avenue, Lucerne Valley, California 92356, United States
Transforming Lives Through Equine-Assisted Learning and Psychotherapy
Through the “magic” of horses one hoof-step at a time
About Can You Dig It Ranch
Our Story
Meet the Crew
Meet the Crew
The Founder/CEO, Sandra Mahoney
Horses have been part of her life since she was 8 years old, with learning to train horses, shows, parades, barrel racing and just enjoying life with horse as a child. She understood how her horses centered her as a young lady and wanted to bring this “magic” to other people.
Fast forward a few years--- She received a degree in Psychology, became certified in PATH Intl as a Therapeutic Riding Instructor and Equine Specialist in Mental Health. Certified in OK Corral Series with Greg Kerstin.
Founder of BJP Youth Ranch Therapeutic riding program.
Equine Director for The Painted Turtle camp, a Paul Newman camp.
Program Director of Spirit Ridge Equine Center, where she worked with Beck Pride Center assisting Veterans using EAP and the founder of the Special Olympics Equestrian of Tehachapi.
She has now moved to Lucerne Valley, CA and wanted to provide the “magic” of horses to her new community.
My husband, Kevin is the Co- Founder of the ranch. Without his tireless and devoted work on building the stalls and the other many projects on the ranch to better the lives of our rescue horses. We would not be in place today to offer our services starting in May 2024 without Kevin!
We would like to introduce our new certified Ok Corral Series instructor, Kari McCoy. We welcome her, and also she will be bringing her two horses down to help in our sessions with their different personalities.
We also will have a Licensed therapist. Ashley working with our Psychotherapy participants in the near future. More about Ashley soon.
We would appreciate your help with feeding and medical supplies, etc. It is all possible because of your help, Thank you!
We are a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible.
We take donations through Zelle
805-338-0134
If we a can get $5 a month per person donation from 40 people, we can support 1 person a month for sessions.
Meet the Crew
Meet the Crew
Meet the Crew
Spirit, a black bay Arabian gelding, about 7 years old. He was a rescue from Arizona, arriving pretty thin and knew nothing about being a productive citizen. He is in the process in learning how to be a riding horse.
Onyx, a grey 18-year-old Andalusian gelding, who also was a rescue. He is blind in one eye and has melanomas and a hurt back knee. We have figured out he performs the Spanish Walk, so not sure who he belonged to in Arizona, maybe a large ranch as he has a brand on his thigh. Onyx is in the process in learning how to pull a cart and then a carriage.
Lily, a 14-year-old Azteca mare. She arrived at the ranch the end of December 2023. She was a brood mare most of her life.
Lily has trust issues right now, we are working with her to show her that life is good. Lots of carrots for rewards and scratches is some of our ways to make her feel special and trusting of people.
Lily is really responding to lots of scratching and learning to trust us.
It is a labor of love!
We have our miniature horse now, a little Bay mare named Mistee. She was a rescue from Texas. Mistee is starting to settle down and become part of our family here. With love and patience, she has realized that carrots are the best treats and her new "family" is not so bad. She and Spirit have become buddies. Mistee in a short amount of time be a very vital part of our crew.
Can You Dig It Ranch 501(c)3 non-profit
All donations gratefully accepted either monetary or equipment or feed.
To feed the horses
Bermuda hay -$240 a month
Rice Bran -$80 a month
Beet pulp -$80 a month
Multi-Fly feed through 3 25# bags per year
Carrots
Wish List
Indoor Building for our Arena 50' x 70' minimum
Capital champaign to raise funds for our indoor arena.
$44,000 for the building and
$35,000 for contractor and permits
$10,000 for solar system for the arena and office
Office building or building materials
Solor lights for arena and round pen
Concrete benches for participants to sit
3/4 Ton or 1 Ton Pu
Wind screens for the round pen and arena
Our back fence needs replacing would like to replace it with solid fence to cut down on the wind in the round pen and arena.
Thank you, a head of time, and may a higher power (if you so believe) bless you and yours.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! WE HAD A PORTA POTI
Officially now the Outhouse.
DONATED TO THE RANCH!!
4 Wheel steel garden cart- DONATED
Water lines installed, thank you to our donors!
What we do
Meet the Crew
Can You Dig It Jewelry
What is Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) or Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) and how will it help?
Equine Therapy has proven to be a powerful and effective approach that impacts individuals, families and groups.
Today, more than ever, everyone faces conflict, uncertainty, and personal challenges in their day-to-day lives. Programs offered through Can You Dig It Ranch assist in promoting self-awareness through positive choices, accepting consequences, and behavior modification-All things that lead to living to one’s full potential.
At Can You Dig It Ranch, our horses serve as a critical component of communication between client and therapist. Many people, especially children, are unable to articulate or even recognize their feelings and they are often unaware of the connections that are made between their feelings and their behaviors.
Our horses provide non-threatening intermediary for spontaneous and unconscious communication thus allowing observation by the trained eyes and ears of a therapist who specializes in behavior issues. Participants learn about themselves and others by participating in activities with horses and then processing and discussing feelings, behaviors, and patterns.
At Can You Dig It Ranch,
We are here to utilize the human-equine connection, to improve the quality of life of people in our communities.
Equine Assisted Activities (EAA) is a system that works with the
horse’s energy and intention. In EAA, the reaction of the horse
reflects what is going on within a person’s heart and mind.
Horses are excellent partners for experiential education.
EAA is a process, sometimes the answer will be obvious to the
facilitator, but not to the participant. Sometimes the participant will
see a piece of the puzzle; sometimes they will get a piece of the puzzle; sometimes they will put the whole puzzle together. It all depends on where they are in their emotional development.
Just remember the old saying:
“You can lead a horse to water; but you cannot make them drink.”
Experiential education means that participants learn about themselves and others by participating in activities that bring meaning to their lives. By processing or discussing their thoughts, beliefs, behaviors and patterns, they can change the way they react to stressful situations. At Can You Dig It Ranch, our facilitators ask the questions that apply to the activity and the goal of the participant(s).
Some principals of experiential education are:
*Experiential learning occurs when carefully chosen experiences are supported by reflection, critical analysis and synthesis.
*Experiences are structured to require the client to take initiative, make decisions, be accountable for results. The participant has the possibility of learning from natural consequences, mistakes and successes.
*Participants are engaged intellectually, emotionally, socially, soulfully and /or physically.
*Throughout the process, the participant is actively engages in posing questions, investigating, experimenting, being curious, solving problems, assuming responsibility, being creative and constructing meaning.
This involvement produces a perception that the learning task is authentic.
The beauty of bringing a horse into the session, is that they are a living, breathing, sentient beings that reacts to our energy, intention and movement. Horses enhance the work of personal development with their beauty and grace. They give us honest feedback, and because they live in the moment, they reflect back to us what we need to do to create change.
We look forward to meeting you! 
Sandra Mahoney, Founder, ESMH, TRI
Can You Dig It Jewelry
Can You Dig It Jewelry
Can You Dig It Jewelry
Kevin is very excited about offering rock cutting and polishing classes for the non- participants or general public in the near future.
Custom made jewelry, He is willing to teach jewelry making classes from silver work, rock carving to casting.
We have machines to polish rocks, faceting machine to learn how to cut the little facets, like in a diamond. Large rock cutting saws to smaller rock cutting saws.
All classes or any rock cutting is by appointment only. Class prices vary on what is being taught.
Rock cutting prices vary on what is to be worked on.
We also have finished unique jewelry -pieces available, ready to pick up and enjoy.
Please e-mail canyoudigitjewelry@gmail.com or call 951-314-2092 or 760-248-7224
What's Happening
Can You Dig It Jewelry
What's Happening
What we offer:
Team building programs EAL for businesses or groups, maximum of 10 people a session.
EAL (Equine Assisted Learning) & EAP (Equine Assisted Psychotherapy) for adults, families, children and Veterans.
Please contact us to make your appointment.
If you are interested in a demonstration, please contact Sandra and she will be happy to set one up for your group.
Groups:
Up to 10 people for team building session
Please call to schedule
Individuals/Families:
Please call to schedule
Now offering Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts Horsemanship Badges class.
Class will be held on Saturdays by appointment, the cost is $50 per person for a day long class. Limited to 10 scouts a day.
Troop leaders please call to schedule.
Donations: If you would be interested in donating for a person or family for a single session or multiple session's please contact Sandra.
We are a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible.
EIN # 93-4543955
New Additions
Can You Dig It Jewelry
What's Happening
Mistee is a rescue from Texas, has only been here a short time and she is doing better every day. Mistee has realized that carrots are the best thing in the world and scratches are becoming a favorite with her too.
We work with her with love and patience, she is understanding that she is in a good place.
With good feed, consistent love and attention, since she has a good outlook on life, she will settle in and become a major and valued member of our crew!
Mistee is doing well, she was in our 4th of July parade and the Apple Valley parade sporting her harness. She is in the process in learning how to pull a cart
Welcome Mistee!