A typical session starts with the child excitedly arriving and greeting all of his/her human and animal friends! The child may then start with “barn activities”, where their therapist works 1:1 with them on an activity that may be brushing the horses, giving a horse a bath, tacking up a horse, running an obstacle course with peers, or setting up games for their mounted time. The second half hour the child may be with the same therapist or may switch to a different discipline for their “riding time”. The child retrieves and dons their helmet, snaps their reins on the horses halter, mounts with the help of their therapist and volunteers if necessary, and begins their riding! Riding can focus on gaining muscle strength, balance, coordination, sensory organization, speech and language production, or socialization. All horses and equipment is chosen by the therapist to specifically cater to the special needs of the individual.

                                                                  

Backriding is required only for children that are working towards head and trunk control. Helmets are used on the child only if the child has sufficient head control to support it’s weight. The therapist uses her body to facilitate normal movement in the child’s body:

                    

Leaders and sidewalkers are used for riders that are working towards safety awareness, sitting balance, and confidence in themselves and their horses:

              

Leaders without sidewalkers are used for riders that have good sitting balance and are working towards being able to stop, start, and turn their horse safely:

                                                         

Independence is our goal! As soon as the rider meets sufficient safety, strength, and horsemanship levels, they are instructed from the middle of the arena. Riders at this level may ride in groups and may challenge themselves by trotting, cantering, jumping, and trail riding at Tradewinds Park around the corner:


         
         

Trail riding, social events, and horseshows are constantly sponsored to promote unity, goodwill, pride, and recognize hard work and SUCCESS!

         

We encourage all of our children, both special needs and able bodied, to become responsible, concitentous, community oriented citiczens. Many of our experienced special need riders are encouraged to volunteer on days they are not riding. Community service hours are given to ALL high schoolers. There is always work to do at the barn, not all of it this messy!