Animals Provide Therapeutic Benefits for Young Men
Farm Work Builds Relationships and While Engaging in Meaningful Work
You’ll see it anytime you step foot on our farm as our young men work with the farm animals. Young men who came here feeling lost are now taking care of animals with confidence. You can see the change in their faces.
Farm Manager Linda Angle watches this happen every day. “The goal for the farm is to educate the students about the different animals and the role they each play,” she says. “The most important thing is getting the students outdoors, getting their hands busy in a constructive way, and getting them involved in nature.”
This farm work isn’t just a nice extra activity. It’s real animal-assisted therapy that helps young men heal and grow— and it’s all happening naturally.
Why Animals Help So Much
Pet owners have always known this – spending time with animals makes people feel better. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology by the National Library of Medicine shows that working with animals can help reduce depression and anxiety.
Here’s how working with animals helps:
- You feel calmer right away. Petting or caring for animals actually changes your body chemistry in a good way.
- Animals make you focus on what’s happening right now. Try feeding a horse while thinking about something else – it doesn’t work.
- They don’t judge you. Animals don’t care about your past mistakes. They only care how you treat them today.
- You build real confidence. Taking good care of animals feels good because you’re doing something important.
Learning Through Farmwork
At Boys Home, farm work doesn’t feel like therapy at all. Students naturally spend time at the farm, and some have regular farm jobs. But that’s what makes it work so well.Students do different jobs:
Taking care of animals – Feeding and cleaning before breakfast every day. Animals need care whether you feel like it or not.
Farm maintenance – Fixing fences, cleaning tools, and moving supplies. You can see what you accomplished at the end of the day.
Growing crops – Planting, weeding, harvesting. Students watch seeds turn into food over months of work.
Using farm equipment – Learning to run tractors and tools safely. This builds real skills while teaching you to pay attention.
None of this is intentionally therapeutic – it just is!
How Animals Help Healing
Working with animals helps because students may not be aware that they are so affected by the animals. They’re just doing farm work that needs to get done while building useful skills.
But changes happen anyway.
Young men who don’t trust people often find it easier to start with animals. Students who get angry learn that yelling at a horse gets them nowhere. You have to stay calm. Kids who feel powerless discover what it’s like to have animals depending on them.
The farm becomes a place where students can start fresh every day. Animals don’t hold grudges. They just respond to how you treat them right now.
Therapeutic Benefits of Working With Farm Animals That Last
Research shows that animals in schools help students do better – they’re more motivated, pay attention better, and feel less stressed. These benefits don’t stay on the farm. They follow students everywhere.
Students tell us they feel calmer after working with animals. They learn patience because animals have their own personalities. They learn to care about others by taking care of creatures that can’t talk.
Farm work also teaches real skills:
- Solving problems when equipment breaks
- Working hard every day because animals need care
- Managing time because animals eat on their schedule, not yours
- Working with others on big projects
These aren’t just nice ideas. They’re real skills learned through actual work.
Working Through Problems in Real Life
Farm programs work because students don’t feel like they are in therapy. The internal work is invisible. Students aren’t sitting in offices talking about feelings. They’re outside doing real work that matters.
For young men who don’t like traditional counseling, this feels natural. Working with animals and being physical often feels better than sitting and talking.
Being outdoors helps too. Fresh air, moving your body, and working with seasons all make people feel better. Students get satisfaction from real work while getting stronger through dealing with the weather and challenges.
We notice how students’ real personalities come out during farm work.
Building Relationships While Working With Animals
Working with animals also helps students and staff get closer. Taking care of animals together creates shared experiences through meaningful work. Older students naturally teach newer ones how to do things right.
This matters a lot for young men who’ve had trouble with adults or other kids. Animals give them safe things to talk about and interests they can share.
Working together in the barn breaks down walls that formal meetings sometimes can’t. There’s something about doing real work together that cuts through the fake stuff and gets to what matters.
What Research Shows
Studies on animal therapy show it really helps with depression and anxiety – exactly the problems that often cause other issues with behavior and school. Physical activity, responsibility, and animal contact all help healing happen.
Research shows that animals help people heal from trauma partly because they comfort you without judging, while making you focus on the present instead of worrying.
What we see at Boys Home matches what researchers are learning.
Farm work gives these proven benefits in a supportive place that focuses on growing, not problems.
Building for the Future
What students learn through farm work stays with them after they graduate. Work ethic transfers to any job. Responsibility and confidence help in college. Being able to work with others helps in jobs and relationships.
Most importantly, they learn they can be trusted and can take care of others. Understanding this about themselves becomes the foundation for success in everything they do.
At Boys Home, we’ve seen how farm programs naturally combine healing, learning, and growing. Students don’t just learn to care for animals – they learn to care for themselves and others.
If you’re wondering whether Boys Home might help your son, come visit our farm and see the healing power of animals yourself. Contact us today to schedule a tour and learn more about how our program, including our farm experience, can help your son reach his potential.