Special Equestrians

19 new participants were added to our therapeutic horsemanship program, which include therapeutic riding and carriage driving, in 2022. The total number of participants served for our therapeutic horsemanship program during 2022 was 95. Special Equestrians' therapeutic carriage driving program completed its 6th season in 2022. This program has allowed us to serve some participants who did not qualify for therapeutic horseback riding. Therapeutic driving is also an alternative equestrian skill to offer the people on our waiting list. Our horses helping humans, a veteran's program continued in 2022, facilitated by two of our path certified professionals. Horses helping humans is a horsemanship program using only groundwork with our veterans. The veterans learn to partner with a Special Equestrians therapy horse. Our path registered therapist, who is an occupational therapist, continues to offer her services at Special Equestrians using hippotherapy as a treatment modality. The term hippotherapy refers to how occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology professionals use evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning in the purposeful manipulation of equine movement to engage sensory, neuromotor, and cognitive systems to achieve functional outcomes in a client. We partner with our therapist to offer these services, which began with the first clients in 2018. The name of our therapist's service is strides occupational therapy services. This service is offered 2 days a week at our center. Our pet partner horse/handler teams were given an additional year of certification because of the pandemic, allowing us to use our certification through 2023. We will be going through our certification evaluations again in 2023. In 2022, a new volunteer coordinator was hired. She is doing a wonderful job of working with united way's volunteer center and recruiting new volunteers. In 2022, a new sound system was installed at the covered riding arena. The new system allows us to use music in our classes and to use a microphone in classes when needed and at Special events. In 2022, our arena footing was completely changed out. The old arena footing was becoming to hard for our horses, volunteers and staff to work in and new type of footing was installed. It is a mixture of sand and textile. The new footing has been a wonderful addition to our arena creating a surface that is safe and comfortable to work in. Our sensory integration trail was rehabbed in 2022 by students from fgcu during make a difference day. This Special day always gives our sensory trail a new fresh look and rehabs the activities and obstacles into a safe area for our participants.