Riding To The Top Therapeutic Riding Center

Client-Centered Programs: Provide high quality and dynamic services to a broad range of clients in our community.
Caring for our Horses: Provide superior care to our horses through top quality nutrition, training, handling and herd management.
Financial Sustainability: Develop balanced, expanded and diverse revenue streams to support RTT’s mission.
Sharing our Story: Promote visibility and awareness of RTT’s impact, programs, and services.
Supporting our Team: Provide a positive, caring and respectful environment that promotes life-long learning and professional growth.
Stewardship of our Farm: Plan, develop and utilize RTT’s property in a fiscally prudent and environmentally sensitive manner.

To provide our community the depth and range of services they need through professional staff, highly trained volunteers and specially selected horses. This will be achieved through investment in the professional development of our staff and volunteers, offering competitive pay and benefits to paid staff, and development of our horses through their overall care (feed and nutrition, health care and training).

To foster research and education to advance the knowledge and understanding of EAAT. In 2020, Riding To The Top will we one of two sites nationally participating in a five year, $2.5 million dollar NIH funded research study on the physiological effects of therapeutic riding on children with autism. This ground breaking research will add important knowledge and understanding to the existing body of research on Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies.

To ensure organizational health and sustainability through mission driven and financially viable programming supported by donor development/stewardship and strong marketing and communications within our community. In 2020, RTT will be launching a new website and will be working extensively with individual donors, foundations and corporations to grow our financial base, including exploring the appetite for a capital campaign for facility expansion.

Riding To The Top has a 27 year history of responding to community needs and engaging different segments of the community through program development and expansion. We have grown from a small all-volunteer run organization to a nationally recognized organization (with a small paid staff and and a large regiment of unpaid, dedicated volunteers) and a budget of over $600,000. We are Maine's only year-round PATH Intl. (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship) Premier Accredited Center solely dedicated to serving people with disabilities. Our participation in a nationally recognized, and NIH funded research project is a testament to our professional staff and high quality programming. We have strong leadership from our Board and long standing and dedicated staff who are committed to the organization's goals.

Since our beginning, 27 years ago, we have helped transform the lives of thousands of clients (and volunteers) through the healing power of horses. RTT has been a PATH Intl. (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International) Premier Accredited center for 20 years and we are Maine’s only year round PATH Intl. Accredited center solely dedicated to serving people with disabilities.

Riding To The Top is an inclusive community where people of all abilities are challenged with positive learning experiences through equine-assisted activities and therapies. RTT is a safe, supportive environment that fosters respect, innovation and diversity.

Since 1993, when we helped a dozen riders on a few rented horses at a leased barn, to today where we assist hundreds of clients year-round at our own accessible 50 acre farm, compassionate and generous giving has made the difference. Riding To The Top Therapeutic Riding Center (RTT) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing equine assisted activities and therapies (EAAT) to children and adults with a wide range of physical, cognitive, and emotional disabilities in a nurturing environment. RTT has an outstanding professional staff, a herd of hard working horses, and an army of committed volunteers who collectively contribute more than 11,000 hours of volunteer service annually. Currently up to 100 riders a week from 45 different towns across southern and mid-coast Maine, and eastern New Hampshire. Riders participate through school based programs, or individually, as a result of referral from doctors, educators, and social service providers.

In 1998, RTT raised $1.6 million dollars to build a year-round, fully accessible facility to meet the needs of our community. This facility has served us incredibly well, but 12 years later, we are once again looking at the possibility of facility expansion to better meet the needs of demand for our programming.