Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Riding for the handicapped

From: Ellen

Dear Jessica, my family all reads horse sense and we all like it a lot, and I print it out and take it to my barn when I have lessons. The owner puts it on the bulleten board so everybody at the barn can read all your answers. You wrote once that it was O.K. to print out horse sense.

My question is about riding for the handicapped. My brother is handicap with Cerbral Palsy and he loves horses but he can't ride at my barn because the owners have the wrong insurance, Also they say it takes special trained people and horses and special saddles and things. Is this true? How old does a person need to be to be trained like this? Where can I find out about this? I would like to help my brother ride a horse. Thanks Jessica, your the best.

Ellen *

Hi Ellen! Yes, you're welcome to print out horse-sense and post it at your barn -- just be sure to include the information at the bottom of the page.

Actually you're in luck with this question, because I've just been looking around, and there is some good information available on the Web. The North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) has a really nice website at

http://narha.org

You'll find a lot of information about specific riding activities for people with various disabilities. You'll also find out about therapeutic riding, how it started, who does it, what good it does, and there are some great quotes from handicapped riders AND from their doctors! There's a list of reading materials about therapeutic riding, too. This will definitely be one for your whole family to read. ;-)

The NARHA website also has membership information and a list of all the official NARHA riding centers. Look them up -- perhaps there's one near you! I certainly hope so. Please let me know how it works out -- I hope to hear that your brother is in a program and riding soon. It can make all the difference in the world to physical and emotional health. ;-)

Jessica

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