![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Chalet-Ranch-wild-horse-mediation-Sept-2025-1024x683.jpg\")
Mustang gelding Bubbles visits with each guest during Wild Horse Meditation at Chalet Ranch while mustangs Bubba and Buddy watch from their corral.Suzie Romig\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\nA common mental health therapy session involves sitting in a comfortable chair in an indoor office to talk with a caring, compassionate professional counselor.<\/p>\n
Yet a person\u2019s mental well-being may also be soothed by the calming presence and gentle nuzzling of a hairy, approximately 800-pound, well-trained mustang.<\/p>\n
Wild Horse Meditation at Chalet Ranch in southern Routt County is a new mental wellness option that started earlier this year. The outdoor meditation amidst nature and animals is part of a growing list of area activity-based, alternative mental wellness sessions that come in all shapes and sizes, such as through art, dance or music.<\/p>\n
On a sunny Sunday morning in late September, a small group of women sat in chairs in a semi-circle facing a horse corral holding two mustangs, who were previously rescued from federal holding facilities. Chalet Ranch co-owner Andrea Krauer led the group in a relaxing guided meditation practice, while two friendly dogs also offered lots of petting opportunities. While the two mustangs gently horsed around inside the corral, a third mustang outside the corral ambled over to visit up close with each guest.<\/p>\n
Krauer promotes the outdoor meditation sessions as the chance to \u201cconnect with the silent wisdom of America\u2019s wild horses.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis guided experience invites you to slow down, breathe deeply and find inner peace in their presence,\u201d according to Krauer.<\/p>\n
Her husband Rouven Krauer \u2014 a noted wild horse trainer, educator and advocate \u2014 trained the adopted mustangs. Each horse required about one year to build full trust with humans. The South Routt couple, who are originally from Switzerland, decided to share their love of and the therapeutic benefits of the mustangs with the community through various types of equine programs.<\/p>\n
Mustang gelding Bubbles visits with each guest during Wild Horse Meditation at Chalet Ranch while mustangs Bubba and Buddy watch from their corral.Suzie Romig\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\n
Attendees at the Wild Horse Mediation in September were complimentary of their morning experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel very strongly that horses are healing,\u201d retired nurse and Routt County resident Kathy McKinley said. \u201cI feel horses give something that can\u2019t be given by anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meditation session was the third for Oak Creek resident Liz Griffith. Bubbles, the mustang roaming outside the pen, walked over to sniff and nuzzle with Griffith, who said each of her visits have been unique with different experiences with the horses.<\/p>\n
Steamboat Springs resident Lauren Eidt was attending the meditation again, but this session was especially significant. She was remembering her cousin who died one year earlier in a mudslide during Hurricane Helene. After the session, Eidt snuggled with the large, gentle horses through a few tears and quick kisses on a soft mustang nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis today has just been the type of space and so supportive from losing my family member,\u201d Eidt said. \u201cThis was exactly what I needed for navigating through that grief.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eidt said the wild horses may initially seem a little intimidating, yet by the end of the mediation session, her \u201cwalls came down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they (mustangs) create space to do our own healing,\u201d Eidt said.<\/p>\n
Another participant noted she was a more of a type A personality and not really a meditator, but she said the guided meditation amongst horses Bubba, Buddy and Bubbles was enjoyable.<\/p>\n
The horse-loving couple bought the picturesque Chalet Ranch just south of Morrison Divide in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe created it together as a place where humans can reconnect with nature, horses and themselves,\u201d Krauer said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Chalet-Ranch-and-meditation-guests-Sept-2025-1024x683.jpg\")
Guests find soothing equine attention during a Wild Horse Meditation session in September 2025 at Chalet Ranch.Suzie Romig\/Steamboat Pilot & Today<\/p>\n
While Rouven Krauer trains horses in the region and in Europe, the couple offers equine sessions by appointment such as one-on-one Wild Horse Meditation, Meet a Mustang and a Wild Horse Youth Program. The next group session for Wild Horse Meditation is scheduled for 10 a.m. Nov. 9, with more information available via email at TheChaletRanch@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Part of the mission of introducing more humans to the gentle mustangs is to promote increased awareness of the need for adoptions of the wild animals from government holding facilities. According to the Bureau of Land Management 2025 statistics, some 65,062 wild horses and 3,081 wild burros were held in off-range holding facilities as of March 1.<\/p>\n Krauer said although the experiences at Chalet Ranch do not serve a clinical therapeutic function, the aim is to \u201ccreate a space where people can feel the unique presence of the horses \u2014 their calm, strength, trust and sometimes gentle nudges that can support personal growth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhether it\u2019s moments of grief, nervousness, feeling down or simply needing inspiration and energy, the horses have their own wonderful way of guiding,\u201d Krauer said.<\/p>\n