Literacy Program

reading quest with equest

An Equine Assisted Literacy Program

Reading Quest with Equest helps 1st grade students practice literacy skills through experiential learning. This program introduces students to the world of horses, which further serves as an incentive to engage the curiosity, senses, and willingness to learn for students.

A Program Highlight on NBC5

About The Program

Miniature horses will visit your campus to introduce the program and to get students excited!
A first-grade level booklet will be given to each student, teaching students about horses.
Horses will send weekly pen pal letters to your students, further encouraging their success in this literacy program.
Weekly program is designed around a horse-related theme, which includes worksheets for students to complete.
Targeted literacy skills may include:
- Identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives
- Rhyming
- Increasing Vocabulary
- Capitalization
- Initial/Final sounds

After 4-weeks of in class activities, students will enjoy a fieldtrip to Equest! This 3-hour on-site visit will include several highly experiential unmounted activities, which provide hands-on learning for students. This visit includes students demonstrating their acquired skills by reading their booklet to their favorite horse. Interactions with the horse promotes enthusiasm for reading, builds confidence among their peers, and fosters a caring relationship with animals. Most important, Equest is offering this program completely FREE to your school and students alike!

2023 Program Outcomes

“At first I wasn’t sure how this would work, but the children were excited to meet the horses and their incentive to learn increased 100%.”

Dr. Shailendra Thomas

The Kings Academy

86 total readers
86% improvement in vocabulary
25% improvement in reading accuracy (words read correctly)
On average, students became 70% faster in speed
On average, students improved speed by 29 seconds
On average, 8.6% improvement in the number of words read within 60 seconds
- Students were broken down into two groups: students needing increased time to read the paragraph (slower readers), and students needing less time to read the paragraph (faster readers)
- Slower readers read the paragraph in over 60 seconds - 31 readers
- Faster readers read the paragraph in under 60 seconds - 55 readers
Faster readers: Read even faster at post-test by 51%
Slower readers:
- Read faster at post-test by 42%
- On average, read 51 seconds faster
- 8 students qualified as "fast readers" at the post-test
6 of our students were Spanish-speaking
- All 6 fell in the slower readers group at pre-test. 4 of these students were unable to read any of the words in the paragraph at pre-test
- These 6 improved their vocabulary by 30%
- Improved their reading word accuracy by 10.5%
- Read faster on average by 42 seconds
- On average gained 15.5 words in 60 seconds at post-test