Therapeutic Riding

Participants with a wide array of physical and cognitive disabilities are welcome to join this exceptional program. Therapeutic riding lessons are planned with the individual’s physical, social, educational, cognitive, and recreational goals in mind. An integrated team that includes a Professional Associated of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH Int.) - certified instructor and dedicated volunteers work with the rider to promote the success, the freedom, and the dignity that can be experienced through therapeutic horsemanship. It is our passion to expand our clients’ abilities and help them to reach their greatest levels of independence.

Benefits include:

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• Improvement in cognitive skills

• Improvement in social skills

• Improvement in behavioral skills

• Increased emotional well-being

• Reduction of sensory disorders

• Increased self-esteem

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• Increased balance and motor control

• Increased coordination

• Increased focus and learning capacity

• Increased physical strength

Lessons are designed with the individual rider's goals and needs in mind. Classes are 30-60 minutes in length and clients attend once a week. All potential participants undergo a comprehensive in-take process that involves completion of registration forms, which includes a physician's release form and an evaluation. Horses and students are matched to complement personality, ability and developmental needs of the client.

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Therapeutic Riding serves people with, but are not limited to:

Autism, Attention Deficit Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Developmental Delay, Downs Syndrome, Hearing and Vision Impairment, Learning Disabilities, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, and Speech Delay.

Equine Assisted Mental Health

Inspiration Ranch recognizes that to meet the mental health needs of Montgomery County and the Greater Houston area, we must be strategic, forward-thinking, and compassionate in our approach to mental health care. And so, we offer our herd of horses to you to help with learning and healing.

Our Equine-Assisted Mental Health Program is a trauma-focused and trauma-informed model based on the principles of Natural Lifemanship. Natural Lifemanship believes that secure, healthy relationships are the foundation for all healing and uses Trauma-Focused Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy (TF-EAP) to help clients learn to build healthy relationships and understand the power that those healthy relationships have to let them heal from harmful life experiences.

Benefits of TF-EAP include:

• Increased self-confidence

• Increased capacity to effectively control emotions and calm the body

• Increased ability to connect with yourself and others

• Identify and change relationship patterns

This program will guide you through the process of building a relationship with a horse by a specially trained team made up of a Mental Health Professional, an Equine Expert, and the horse itself. The relationship-building process will help you to understand how your life experiences have shaped the way that your brain functions. It then teaches you to build new pathways in your brain that can heal relationships with yourself, others, and the world around you.  

Our horses are vital partners on the therapy team. Horses react quickly and authentically to subtle shifts in human respiration, body language, voice tone, muscle tension, and posture. They are invaluable as relationship partners because they provide immediate and non-judgmental feedback about the impact of our interactions with them. The process of becoming familiar with a horse’s feedback form the foundation for change that promotes healing and the development of secure relationships with yourself and others in your life. The same skills and principles that you learn in your relationship with a horse apply to all human relationships.

What’s My Next Step?

Email Debbie Blackmon at thecottage@inspirationranch.org to see if TF-EAP is a good fit for you, your child, or a family member and to find out about enrolling in the program.  

Summer Camps

Each summer, Inspiration Ranch provides several weeks of summer camp for our clients, their siblings, and children currently on our waitlist. Throughout the week, campers learn about proper horse care, participate in activities, games, and crafts, learn riding techniques and trail blazing, and end the week with a horse show to show their families what they have learned throughout the week.