What is Therapeutic/Adaptive Riding?
The focus of therapeutic/adaptive riding is for the participant to learn the skills of horseback riding in a lesson format in a way that adapts to your child’s unique needs. Therapeutic/Adaptive riding instructors are professionals who are educated on various disabilities. Therapeutic riding instructors modify and adapt the recreational activity of horseback riding to promote learning and carry-over of skills.
Therapeutic riding is beneficial for people with a variety of disabilities. Horseback riding promotes self-confidence, self-awareness, helps with improving concentration, executive functioning and more. A therapeutic riding session can be both mounted and unmounted or a combination of both. Ground skills, such as grooming and tacking the horse, are an important part of the session and will help participants bond with the horse and learn new skills. Adaptive tack, such as reins and stirrups, can be used to accommodate the needs of each rider so they can learn to ride more comfortably.
In therapeutic riding, the participants have goals that relate to learning riding and horsemanship skills. These goals are designed to help each person learn to ride while learning how to work with and care for their horse. Goals are made to cater to needs of each individual so they can learn how to ride to the best of their ability.
2026 Schedule
Therapeutic riding lessons are typically run in groups of either 8-9 or 15-16 sessions based on the four seasons.
Summer Semester 2026 (8 weeks): June 29th-August 22nd 2026
Fall Semester 2026 (15 weeks) August 30th- September 5th 2026 Intake/progress check-in week (virtual or clinic based) December 19th 2026 (equine sessions) Break week: November 22nd-28th Thanksgiving