Heroes On Horseback

Our primary goal is to empower the lives of special needs individuals, using equine therapy. The measurement of our success is not based solely in the improved physical, cognitive, and mental performance of those we serve during their therapy at our facility, but more importantly in their increased and sustained improvement at their homes and in their communities.
The goals of equine therapy fall into two primary categories: physical enrichment which includes the recovery of physical abilities, improved balance and coordination, greater strength and muscle control and increased range of motion; and emotional and mental progress which includes increased confidence and self-esteem and improvement in language, cognitive abilities, and social skills. It is not uncommon for children who have never (or stopped) verbal
communications with their parents or caregivers to begin to speak. Additionally, many of our participants have experienced the ability to start walking, when they lost such ability through an accident or stroke or may have never had the ability to walk in the first place. The horse provides freedom of movement and excitement that no clinical setting can duplicate. Many of these benefits occur after only a couple of weeks of equine therapy.

As a premiere-accredited center of PATH, Int’l, all of our instructors are PATH certified and must conduct lessons according to PATH guidelines. These guidelines require the establishment of goals and objectives for each participant after the initial assessment of the rider, as well as consultation with the parents, teachers, caregivers, and medical professionals. Evaluations and progress notes are completed for each participant after each class and summarized after each session. All applicants are required to provide a medical certification of their disability. Volunteers play a critical role in our program, as it typically takes three volunteers to assist one rider, with other volunteers assisting in ground and arts lessons. Each rider is evaluated. The goals of the students are projected achievements, while objectives are specific and rider centered. Examples of goals include increased self-esteem and assertive skills, improved balance or control skills, while objectives are measured by performance & criteria. Assessments and evaluations are made by everyone involved in the therapeutic riding experience of the individual: the instructor; the side-walkers and horse leaders working with each rider; and the ground activities coordinators. Progress is discussed with the caregivers so that additional therapeutic activities can be planned for. Long term evaluation of the results includes the riders' improvement after a session and subsequent sessions as noted in the progress notes. Short term assessments include the daily class progress notes. Riders with disabilities improve not just through their skill level but also improvement in auditory communication, behavior improvement, social interaction and physical improvements. We anticipate continued success in the empowerment of our participants in four major areas: intellectual, physical, emotional, and mental, with improvements in balance, co-ordination, confidence, communication, problem solving, social interaction, comprehension, and adaptability. Our program will continue to generate triumphs in the riding arena that result in the transfer of life skills for every one of our participants.

Our program operates from a 20-acre facility on Stillwell Rd. in Bluffton, SC. This location is in a rural setting and has a large riding paddock, a barn, grazing paddocks, and a building housing our admin office, arts education area, and volunteer room. We use a herd of seven horses to support the program. All therapeutic riding is led by certified instructors of PATH, Int’l. (“PATH”), the international organization governing equine-assisted therapeutic riding centers. Our instructors also hold coaching certifications through Special Olympics. We also use approximately 50 volunteers per six-week riding session from a registered base of over 250 volunteers. All of our volunteers are trained according to PATH standards and our children's program volunteers are Class-A certified through Special Olympics.

Our participants benefit from our program through increased confidence, improved concentration, better self-awareness and self-discipline, and improved emotions, posture, balance, strength, flexibility, and eye/hand coordination. The horse provides freedom of movement and excitement that no clinical setting can duplicate. Many of these benefits occur after only a couple of weeks of equine therapy. The improvements of many of our participants include the ability to take their first unassisted steps and/or vastly improved verbal communications, including, in some cases, their first spoken words. Every participant is evaluated prior to the start of their session, and measurable goals and objectives are defined with caregivers. After each class, detailed notes are recorded on every participant, so we can measure their progress from week to week and for an entire session. Critical to the success of our program are the physical and emotional/mental improvements our participants exhibit not only at our facility, but also at home, at school, and in their workplace. Within our disabled veterans program, we are confronting a different set of challenges. While some of our participants are physically disabled and benefit from the physical empowerment of our program, most also suffer from PTSD, even to the level of suicidal thoughts. Our program has directly impacted these special individuals to the point where they have told us that their lives have renewed purpose without continued threats of suicide. A number of our veterans also volunteer in other parts of our program, including horse training, facility maintenance, and working with other disabled veterans.
Through our equine-assisted therapy, there are significant positive impacts to our community. Many of our youth participants perform much better in the classroom and are better functioning at home, as their behavioral and physical improvements transfer from their experiences at our equine facility to their personal lives. Similarly, many of our adult participants experience physical and emotional improvements and become more engaged within their families and in their community. Over the last year, a number of our disabled veterans also became regularly engaged volunteers in our program. In May 2019, we made our first attempt at competing in a “normal” equestrian competition that was not targeted at special needs. The four young girls we trained for this event performed competitively against their “able-bodied” peers, bringing home several first and second place ribbons. This was an important milestone for our program, as we introduced our special needs population to the able-bodied population in a common competitive environment, resulting in both populations understanding that they can work and compete together without the typical barriers that society commonly creates to separate special needs individuals from “typical” individuals.