Program

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Tara's Chance Equine Assisted Therapy program provides special needs children with the opportunity to participate in a unique educational and therapeutic program designed specifically to help meet their physical, cognitive, behavioral and social needs. The benefits of equine therapy sports programming extend across a broad spectrum of riders in an atmosphere that is understanding, sensitive and supportive of the unique needs of children with special needs. Children with autism, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, physical handicaps, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), developmental delays, genetic syndromes (such as Down syndrome), traumatic brain injuries and other special needs have all benefited from the program. Students participating in the program are afforded an experience that will impact them for a lifetime while positively improving the way they function in their daily lives.

 

Physical Benefits

The goals and benefits of equine assisted activities are unique for every child, depending on their individual needs. The movement of the horse causes an inherent response from the child, relaxing muscles that are tight, increasing tone in muscles that are weak, building balance, coordination and control, which in turn enables children to use hands and arms, sit, stand and walk.

 

Equine Horse Therapy provides multi-dimensional movement, which is variable, rhythmic as well as repetitive. The horse provides a dynamic base of support, making it an excellent source for improving the rider’s trunk strength, control, balance, overall postural strength and endurance. The results usually include greater coordination, respiratory control, and attention skills. Furthermore, many of the riders enjoy additional emotional and psychological benefits, including reduction in anxiety, depression, increase in empowerment and confidence.

Cognitive & Social Benefits

 

The experience of being on the back of an animal 15 times your size is at first intimidating and scary but transforms into empowering and exciting. The horse is a unique example of gentleness and power and responds to all people according to their intentions, not their age, size, race, or social status. The horse is a gentle judge of character and students adjust their behavior accordingly. We at Tara’s Chance focus on building the student’s self-image, one child at a time, so that we accomplish not just a new physical skill or emotional breakthrough, but provide a context for the student to experience a new sense of self-worth while doing meaningful work alongside their peers, instructors and volunteers.

 

Our experience in working with children with various challenges helps us tailor our teaching style to meet the needs of each student. We are very sensitive that our students are individuals. This understanding helps us to deliver a program that makes a big impact on the students. The life skills learned, such as teamwork and responsibility, have lasting effects.

 

While we know that therapeutic riding is a potent form of physical and emotional therapy, the children see it as fun. Equine therapy provides the opportunity for our riders to show off and demonstrate success in a sport like atmosphere. The fun component of Tara's Chance leads our students to make therapeutic progress that they otherwise might not in a clinical setting. 

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Riding fee per session is $50. Tara’s Chance is dedicated to providing equine therapy to every applicable rider regardless of financial restrictions. Tara’s Chance policy is to never refuse a rider in the program due to an inability to pay. We provide financial scholarships and we will work with every family to assure their child can ride.

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The program operates 43 weeks out of the year. Click here to view our calendar. The program currently operates Wednesday and Thursday 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. and Saturday 8:30-1:00. 

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Participants must be 3 years old, there is no age limit. Participants must weigh less than 150 pounds.

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Waitlist Policy

1.After completing the above forms you will be added to the waitlist. The waitlist is currently over 12 months.

2.When your child is at the top of the waitlist you will receive an email from office@taraschance.org and a phone call from our staff to complete a rider update form,liability release form, and Tara’s Chance policy form. You will have 7 days to return our email or phone call or we will move to our next rider on the waitlist. If this happens you will remain at the top of the list and we will attempt to contact you again when your child is at the top of the list. If we are not contacted after trying to reach you 4 times,you will be removed from our waitlist.

3.You must return all completed forms to office@taraschance.org within 10 days of our original email and phone call or we will move to the next rider on the waitlist. We will attempt to contact you to remind you.

4.After receiving all completed forms, we will call or email you to schedule an evaluation ride for your child.

5.If our program director approves of the evaluation ride,we have accepted 98% of all evaluation riders and work with high special needs children, we will schedule a recurring weekly time that works for your child in our program.

6.You will then begin riding on a weekly basis and emailed an invoice for the riding quarter.