EquiCenter Just Got $900,000 From New York State — Here Is What Happens at This Mendon Ranch

Most people driving past Mendon have no idea EquiCenter is there. On August 12, Assemblymember Jen Lunsford and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie drove out to the ranch to announce $900,000 in state funding for an organization running therapeutic programs at the edge of Monroe County. EquiCenter Mendon NY is not a wellness retreat. It is a place where veterans work with wild mustangs, where youth from underserved communities put their hands in soil, and where people who have not found what they need in conventional care find something that works.

Who EquiCenter Serves — and Why It Matters

Who EquiCenter Serves — and Why It Matters

EquiCenter's programs focus on people with disabilities, youth from underserved communities, veterans, and first responders, according to WXXI News. Those are not categories on a grant application. They describe populations that conventional healthcare and recreation routinely fail — people for whom a standard therapy appointment is either out of reach or beside the point.

The organization runs horses, horticulture, and nature-based programs on its Mendon ranch. Horses and soil and open space are not the backdrop — they are the method. When Lunsford and Heastie came to make the announcement, they drove to a barn in Monroe County, not a hotel conference room.

The Mission Mustang Program: Veterans, Wild Horses, and Healing

The Mission Mustang Program: Veterans, Wild Horses, and Healing

The most distinctive program EquiCenter runs is Mission Mustang. According to WXXI News, veterans with post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injuries learn to "gentle" wild mustangs — working with horses that have never been handled by humans, earning their trust, and preparing them to be adopted into new homes.

The veteran learns to read a frightened animal. The mustang learns that a human can be trusted. That exchange — earned in a round pen over time — is what the program is built on. A mustang responds to what is actually happening in front of it, not to credentials or explanations. The process cannot be hurried.

What the $900,000 Will Actually Build

What the $900,000 Will Actually Build

The funding arrives in two pieces. New York state provided $500,000 for barn repair and accessibility improvements, including smoother surfaces between buildings so that participants with mobility limitations can move freely across the campus. A barn built around horses does not automatically accommodate everyone who needs to be there. This money closes that gap.

The remaining $400,000 goes to operating expenses — the staff, programming costs, and daily overhead of keeping a Monroe County nonprofit running through every season.

"This is really opening up our programs more so than ever to anybody who needs them."

— Katherine Hatch, EquiCenter Executive Director

The Mendon ranch runs programs year-round. When the barn repairs are done and the pathways are smoother, every participant who comes through the gates will be able to reach every part of the campus.