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Give the Gift of Freedom on Horseback?

Publication Number: M2258
View as PDF: M2258.pdf
Text file for accessibility: File M2258_accessible.docx

Donate to the Equine-Assisted Therapy Program!

“In riding a horse, we borrow freedom.” Helen Thomson

The Equine-Assisted Therapy Program helps children and adults with special needs to experience a few hours of freedom in the company of a horse and caring instructors and volunteers. 

These experiences translate into solid gains for the riders:

  • Improved strength, balance, coordination, and awareness.
  • Stronger self-sufficiency and independence.
  • Increased confidence and self-esteem.
  • Enriched quality of life.

Donations to the Equine-Assisted Therapy Program will enable more children and adults to experience these opportunities for freedom from limitations, from frustration, from isolation, and even from wheelchairs. You can make all the difference.

4-H Therapeutic Riding & Activity Center Core Values

  • Healing
  • Empowerment
  • Passion
  • Integrity

There are five specific programs you can support:

  • Therapeutic riding to develop intellectual, physical, emotional, and social skills.
  • Hippotherapy that uses the horse’s motion to support and enhance physical, occupational, or speech therapy.
  • Educational programs, including summer camps, school trips, and individual or group horse activities.
  • Veterans Horsemanship Program, which provides interactions with horses to offer hope and encouragement, promoting physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth.
  • Certification workshops for therapeutic riding instructors.

“Kylie can be so sick, but, on Thursdays, she pushes that sickness back and rides for an hour of true bliss.” Casey Robertson, Kylie’s mom

Kylie has a progressive, degenerative form of mitochondrial disease, which is causing the gradual breakdown of her nerves and muscles, reducing her mobility, and impairing her internal organs. The hour she spends each Thursday with the Therapeutic Riding Program provides Kylie and her parents something to look forward to, a time free from the pain, isolation, and despair of her illness, and it has helped her to maintain her muscles and overall health.

Equine-Assisted Therapy programs are held at

Elizabeth A. Howard Therapeutic Riding and Activity Center, 1225 Old White Road South, West Point, MS 39773

For more information about Extension’s Equine-Assisted Therapy Program, contact Cassie Brunson at (662) 325-1718 or cbrunson@humansci.msstate.edu

Support Equine-assisted Therapy online.

  •  Select “Other” and include pledge number 311235.

To donate in support of Extension’s Equine-Assisted Therapy Program, contact Will Staggers at (662) 325-2837 or wstaggers@foundation.msstate.edu.

Certification workshops for therapeutic riding instructors are approved by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH) International.


M2258 (200-05-19)

Copyright 2019 by Mississippi State University. All rights reserved. This publication may be copied and distributed without alteration for nonprofit educational purposes provided that credit is given to the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

Produced by Agricultural Communications.

Mississippi State University is an equal opportunity institution. For disability accommodation, please contact Cassie Brunson at cbrunson@humansci.msstate.edu.

Extension Service of Mississippi State University, cooperating with U.S. Department of Agriculture. Published in furtherance of Acts of Congress, May 8 and June 30, 1914. GARY B. JACKSON, Director

Department: Ag & Bio Engineering, School of Human Sciences
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