ABOUT US
Mustang Medicine is an initiative created by The Clapham Foundation - a 501(c)3 charity - that inspires people to pursue and reach their highest potential. By combining the science of Positive Psychology, Evidence-Based Horsemanship and ancient Greek Philosophy, our program delivers workshops wherein individuals experience practical application of their divine strengths and divine deficiencies to develop core character excellences (virtue).
Our unique approach utilizes findings of equine neuroscience that mustangs experience primary emotions of fear, safety, trust and love in manners similar to that of humans. Our methods provide insight into personal character excellences (virtues) that empower us to successfully overcome difficult circumstances that occur in our lives.
We refer to individuals in our program as scholars because everyone attends the program on scholarship and expresses a desire to study character excellence and become a Person of Character Excellence (Virtue).
When mustangs are gathered in from the wild and adopted by our facility, they begin the process of learning to trust and overcome fear to become safe, confident and excellent in their new partnership with humans. Certified mustang facilitators guide and gentle the mustangs through the initial training program to prepare the mustangs to safely work with the scholars.
During our workshops, scholars work with semi-wild mustangs and facilitators to think through the pressures of the mustang’s challenging circumstances. By doing so, scholars discover their own character strengths & deficiencies and teach themselves principles to address adversity and develop the confidence to defeat fear, create internal safety, trust themselves and find gratitude in growth through hardship. Our workshops foster awareness and teach scholars how to think - not what to think. As a result, our scholars discover that all the answers they need to successfully address and overcome life’s challenges reside within themselves.
Character excellence comprises the heart of the Mustang Medicine program, and helping people build virtuous lives represents its ultimate aim. Virtue is a way of being that promotes magnificence: the ability to own our strengths without arrogance and the ability to own our deficiencies without shame. We believe the most effective way to influence society is to influence individuals because like-minded individuals freely coalesce to build and fortify communities. To that end, we begin with the individual to create symbiotic societies forged from a foundation of virtue.
Our Team
HUGH VAIL
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
Hugh Vail is the founder of the Clapham Foundation. He is responsible for developing the vision and executing the strategy. Hugh previously owned and operated a successful multi-million dollar food storage company. Hugh managed the Operation Underground Railroad Social Media accounts and created an online community of 250,000 people with a readership of over 1,000,000 people a year. He was the chief strategist on the digital marketing for The Abolitionists, a documentary about Operation Underground Railroad.
"We must discover, activate and vigorously perfect the warhorse character excellences within us.
Because we know we are enough and we will always be enough, we will not sabotage our divine life purpose out of fear and shame.
The degree to which we develop the character excellences determines our ability to manifest the Warhorse that already exists within us in order to overcome our divine obstacles and deliver to humanity the elixir of our divine journey."
- Hugh Vail
Advisory Board
Jeff Olsen, Director of Marketing for BYU broadcasting
Jeff O'Driscoll, M.D.
Tyler Perry, Perry Homes
