Special Equestrians, Inc.

As a nonprofit offering therapeutic horseback riding and equine assisted activities and therapies to persons with disabilities, our goal is to enhance the lives of our participants, cognitively, physically and socially, in a safe environment.

Special Equestrians uses equines as a tool for our learning environment. Lessons may be mounted or unmounted, with learning taking place in each type of setting.

We have therapeutic riding classes set up for four days of the week, 33 weeks of the year. During the therapeutic riding classes, we have four paid PATH Intl. certified instructors who teach our classes.

We also have a therapeutic carriage driving program taught by a PATH Intl. certified driving instructor. These classes will be offered during the late fall, winter, and early spring.

In 2012, Special Partners became another service we offered. A few of the program equines were certified in animal assisted activities. They are able to go to schools, assisted living facilities and other nonprofits to give the children and adults an opportunity to meet, pet and brush a horse. We also offer them the opportunity to participate in our literacy program.

In 2017, Special Equestrians began offering occupational therapy services using hippotherapy as a treatment modality.

In 2019, we began offering an unmounted Veterans Program. Veterans choose one of our program horses, learning to brush them, lead them and partner with their horse.

Special Equestrians is located on property that is owned by our organization. It was purchased in 2007 and at this time, our property is approximately 15 acres. At our facility, we have two areas for our classes, one is a covered riding arena and the other is a Sensory Integration Trail.

In order to run our organization, we need many volunteers to make it all happen. At this time,we have approximately 140 volunteers who come to Special Equestrians each week. Last year, our volunteers gave over 24,000 hours of volunteer service.

Our classes and programs are all taught and facilitated by certified riding instructors who are associated with PATH Intl., The Professional Association for Therapeutic Horsemanship. We are a Premier Accredited Center, which means that we must follow the standards set forth by PATH Intl. Every 5 years, we must go through re-accreditation. We have retained this distinction since 2005.

We have accomplished so much since our beginnings in 1987. We have our own property with a 12 stall horse barn, caretaker home, office, covered riding arena, sensory integration trail, new pasture land for our equine, a new outreach program, 3 paid instructors and 4 volunteer instructors, our own drill team made up of our independent riders, a dedicated board of directors and the distinction since 2005 of being a Premier Accredited Center with the Professional Association for Therapeutic Horsemanship.

Special Equestrians is debt-free at this time. In 2013, we were able to pay off our property mortgage.

We have added additional services such as hippotherapy, therapeutic carriage driving lessons, and a Veteran's program. Our carriage driving instructor has begun the driving classes. We also have an occupational therapist who is a PATH certified therapist for hippotherapy. She has been offering her OT services in this area since 2017.

Our veterans program has been well received. We would like to expand this program to add more veterans who can participate in this wonderful groundwork program.