Throughout the world, there are thousands of individuals with special needs who experience the special bond that is established between a horse and rider.  A disability does not have to limit a person from riding horses.  Each week riders come from Licking and surrounding counties to groom, work with and ride a partner for learning in a horse or pony at Hope Farm Granville.  We offer a safe, secure, fun environment for riding and achieving amazing goals.  Our programs offer riders the opportunity to focus on what they are able to do and the results are life changing.  Our services are open to any person, ages 2-80 years old with special needs who can benefit from therapeutic horsemanship.

Therapeutic Riding has proven to be beneficial for the following diagnoses:

Lessons are 30 or 60 minutes, weekly in pre-defined sessions throughout the year. No one is ever turned away for financial reasons. Our focus is to benefit each rider by setting specific goals to be established in conjunction with caregivers, teachers, parents and any other members of the support team.  Each lesson includes grooming, safety in groundwork, and a mounted ride including warm-up exercises, a skill and a game. Our indoor arena allows us to close the door to outside weather. We enjoy music, heat, mirrors and lights to enhance each riding experience. Our trained and dedicated volunteers see that each horse is ready for the lesson and each rider has a safe and fun experience. Parents and care-givers can be volunteers in lessons if they complete the yearly training session.  A P.A.T.H. Intl Certified Instructor is required to complete a comprehensive certification process that requires them to demonstrate their riding abilities, horsemanship, knowledge of disabilities and proper teaching techniques. Using this expertise, the horse is matched with the rider and a detailed lesson plan is designed to enhance the physical, cognitive and emotional well-being of our riders.

Benefits and Goals of Equine Assisted Riding:

• Strengthening and Toning Muscles
• Improving Balance and Flexibility
• Enhancing Head Control and Eye-hand Coordination
• Strengthening Communication Skills (speaking and listening)
• Improving Concentration, Patience and Self-esteem
• Increasing Compassion and Sense of Belonging

Our new students must complete a visit at the farm and they must have completed medical and release forms. This way, we know what type of assistance might be necessary in our lessons. We have an on-going wait-list. Students are given places in programming according to their place on the wait-list and our lesson availability. We do our best to schedule each rider as soon as we possibly can. This includes the scheduling of necessary volunteers and the specific horse who might be an appropriate partner.