Sunnyside Riding Center provides unique, non-competitive, therapeutic horseback riding instruction to individuals, with an emphasis on children and adults with diagnosed mental and physical disabilities. Our mission is to offer a positive experience to those with special needs. Lessons on horseback help people to gain life skills through multi-task learning. THR develops balance, strength, coordination, & endurance. It also provides both psychological & physical benefits.
When riding, over 30 muscles groups are being used!
Daniel and Julie at work on colors and shapes. Daniel doesn't realize that this exercise is helping him with his vocabulary skills! He is just having fun while riding Surprize, a POA mare.
Who is eligible?
Equine Assisted Learning
Anyone who is over the age of 3, and weighs less than 140 pounds is welcome to apply. A doctor or physical therapist must give a written statement that a rider would benefit from, and is able to take part in therapeutic riding. Some of the disabilites we can serve are sight and hearing impairments, cerebral palsy, brain injuries, learning disabilites, emotional disturbance's, and both trainable and educable mentally handicapped students.
We have a mounting ramp to assist riders with mounting.
Weight restriction is due to the size of our horses and strength of the volunteers. We want to keep everyone safe.
A big THANKS to Clinton AMBUCS for funding to buy materials and to Randall Stucker for building this for us!
Sunnyside is searching for a therapist to help with services for equine assisted learning and psychotherapy. This would be on a contract basis.
This approach is done on a treatment team basis consisting of the therapist, equine professional, and the horse (or horses). EAP is experiential in nature, with participants learning about themselves and others by participating in activities with the horse, then processing feelings, behaviors, and patterns.
90% of EAP takes place on the ground. This is not horsemanship or riding lessons. This is serious therapy in a setting that gets results!
Often compared to ropes courses used by therapist, yet EAP has the added advantage of utilizing horses, living beings who give instant feed back.
You can learn more at www.okcorralseries.com
What does it cost?
We do not charge students with diagnosed disabilites for their lessons. There is administration fee each year of $35 per student. This fee goes directly to help with expenses of Sunnyside Riding Center.
If you are a therapist, we have a small fee for using our services. Please contact us for details.
How can I get my child started riding stride by stride?
Contact the center for forms and more information. Space is limited. We can be reached byemailor call.
Required riding gear is: long pants (when riding with a saddle), SEI approved helmet, and a desire to have a good time.
Sunnyside Riding Center, Inc 580-323-0466
9945 N 2230 Road 580-331-7986
Arapaho OK 73620-9724
Jacob and Randall seem to be having fun at their jobs. However, Jacob's favortie thing to do is trot! We dubbed him our trotting monster. Volunteers get a great work out without those high cost gym fees!
To learn more about our programs and how we can help you, contact us via email or phone. We can develop a program for your needs.
All EAP must be conducted with a lisensed therapist such as a LPC, LCSW.
