Forward Stride

Inclusive equestrian sports (riding, horsemanship, and vaulting) in our riding and horsemanship program, children and adults of all abilities have opportunities to develop horsemanship skills, fitness, and self-confidence through horseback riding lessons. Our model connects horsemanship with life skills in a safety-first environment. This adaptive program includes lessons in basic ground work, horse handling, riding, dressage, western and jumping. We served 100-125 clients per week, about 60 percent of whom were children. Approximately 70 percent of our clients self-identify as having a physical, cognitive, or emotional diagnosis. In our equestrian vaulting program, clients of all abilities learn how to combine gymnastics and dance in partnership while atop a moving horse. We accentuate partnership with the horse, teammates, longueur, and coach. We served 30 to 40 clients a week, 70% of whom were children. Approximately, 70% percent of these clients self-identify as having a diagnosis. Weekly sessions are held year round, with the exception of 1 or 2 weeks of break at the end of each quarterly session.

New build/facility we took this year to make improvements upon existing infrastructure. We added mud free zones to all of our existing pastures, created 3 new pastures, and erected the fencing for our outdoor arena space. All of these changes have added to the good health of our herd, reduced costs for bedding and stall cleaning, and allowed for larger capacity in the summer months.

Clinical services (rehabilitative services and equine facilitated psychotherapy) our rehabilitative services (hippotherapy) program is therapy for people with physical and developmental challenges. Our licensed and highly trained therapists provide physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech and language pathology. Each clinician uses the uniquely therapeutic and challenging movement of the horse to add to the other benefits and modalities of their field of expertise. We served 17-21 clients each week, for a total of 34 lives touched throughout the year. We also partnered with providence to provide occupational therapy to 12 individuals. Our equine facilitated psychotherapy (efp) is therapy for personal growth and treatment for those with mental health diagnoses. Sessions are available for adults, adolescents, and children, which can take place in an individual, family, or group therapy setting. We served 10-15 clients each week, for a total of 33 lives touched throughout the year. A sub program of our efp program is our mentoring program. Youth between the ages of 6 and 18 who are in the foster system are paired with trained mentors and horses that they meet with weekly. Starting in the 2022 school year, we are providing services to 9 mentees per week. Weekly sessions are held year round, with the exception of 1 or 2 weeks of break at the end of each quarterly session.

Personal development (volunteer, professional development, equine facilitated learning) our volunteer program provides opportunities for everyone over the age of 12 to give back to our organization and learn new skills. We had between 125 and 150 volunteers per week and about 200 total individuals throughout the year. These volunteers help with our clinical services, inclusive equestrian sports and assist with caring for our herd of therapy horses and ponies. As covid-19 protocols diminished we were able to go back to full capacity for our volunteers. Our professional development program continued to provide mentoring to 1 path intl. Certified therapeutic riding instructor. We also hosted a path intl. Equine specialist in mental health and learning workshop and certification that 9 of our staff attended. Equine assisted learning (eal) is an experiential learning approach that promotes the development of life skills for educational, professional and personal goals through equine-assisted activities. Some of the learning included communication, body language, group dynamics and problem solving. We partnered with 2 different school programs, victory academy and benson polytechnic high school. We served 15 youth through these partnerships. We also partnered with nara (native american rehabilitation association). Youth from their residential treatment program came twice a week through the year and we served 45 youth total. One final partnership we had was with the janus youth program and maclaren youth correctional facility. We spent 6 weeks taking two horses to maclaren youth correctional facility providing groundwork and horsemanship skills to 8 youth.