Therapeutic Riding

To ensure safety and comfort:

• Long pants are required.

• Closed-toe shoes with a low heel (paddock boots or similar are ideal).

• A certified equestrian helmet is required. Helmets are available onsite at no cost.

Yes, a helmet is required. This can be an issue for some people, but usually the motivation to ride is strong enough and quickly they are able to wear a helmet. If the helmet is an ongoing struggle for a rider, we will lend the rider a helmet to practice wearing at home to get used to it.

Riders are welcome to purchase their own helmet and bring it with them for lessons. If you decide to purchase a helmet, please note that we require all riders to use a helmet that meets ASTM/SEI safety standards.

We will provide you with forms that need to be filled out via DocuSign and email. We appreciate receiving forms in a timely manner. Please note that we cannot begin riding until we have a medical form signed by a doctor.

We think that just about anyone will benefit from our therapeutic horsemanship program. GallopNYC works with children, teens youth and adults who face developmental, emotional, social and physical challenges. Our riders have a wide range of disabilities including developmental and learning disabilities; autism spectrum disorder; cerebral palsy, MS, trauma and PTSD and speech and language delays. Riders in our Therapeutic Riding program can start as young as four.

GallopNYC knows from experience that therapeutic riding is a uniquely effective and engaging form of therapy for people dealing with various disabilities and growing research is providing evidence to back this up, with two clear themes emerging:

• The combination of effective physical and cognitive tasking in a motivating context enables people with disabilities to more rapidly attain needed skills.

• A bonding relationship with a horse opens individuals to better acceptance of counseling, therapy or training.

Therapeutic riding provides concrete benefits, as demonstrated in a recent study that found that “a 10-week therapeutic horseback riding intervention with children diagnosed with [Autism Spectrum Disorders] can result in significant improvement,” specifically in measures of “self-regulation, adaptive expressive language skills, motor skills, and verbal praxis/motor planning skills” (R.L. Gabriels, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders).

These research results are consistent with anecdotal reports from parents and teachers, who report gains in attention span and communication skills that carry over to the home and the classroom.

Yes, a lot of research has gone into the benefits of therapeutic riding and hippotherapy for those with disabilities. View the American Hippotherapy Association’s list of peer reviewed journals here or see our list of selected research articles here.

Therapeutic riding lessons teach an individual to ride, which typically offers many therapeutic benefits. Lessons are conducted by a PATH International certified therapeutic riding instructor. Lessons are typically in a group format with up to three riders. Note that a lesson may consist of the teaching of equine skills, such as care of the horse and equipment, how to lead, and proper vocabulary, in addition to or instead of riding.

Hippotherapy sessions are offered by a physical therapist trained in Hippotherapy, a method that uses the horse as a physical therapy tool, with less emphasis on learning to ride. Riders work one on one with a therapist, though often there will be other riders in the arena at the same time.

Therapeutic riding lessons are taught by a riding instructor certified by PATH Intl., who is supported by a dedicated and experienced group of volunteers. Because GallopNYC is an equine teaching center, trainee instructors may co-teach lessons under the supervision of a certified instructor. Our hippotherapy sessions are offered by an independent physical therapist trained in Hippotherapy, working with GallopNYC. GallopNYC’s program offers a safe and supportive environment in which an individual can reap many benefits.

Therapeutic riding is generally offered for riders starting at age 4, but we do occasionally allow exceptions.

Hippotherapy riders can be as young as 18 months. We also work with youth, adults and seniors.

The program is primarily for riders with disabilities, but we do offer lessons to people who do not have a diagnosis. Often, we have siblings of riders with disabilities in our program.

We also offer general riding lessons and recreational riding at GallopNYC Sunrise Stables in Lindenwood.

We reserve the right to determine if a person will ride with GallopNYC. We work with people at all functional levels and with a wide range of disabilities. However, there are some conditions we may not be able to accommodate. This is not an exhaustive list, but these are the conditions that we have addressed in the past.

• For example: Weight Limit Policy.

  To protect both riders and horses: Maximum weight for balanced, independent riders: 180 pounds. Maximum weight for riders requiring significant physical support: 150 pounds.

• Uncontrolled Seizure: If a person is experiencing regular, uncontrolled seizures, they may not be able to ride.

• Abusive behavior: Many people who struggle to control their behavior, find that they are able to control abusive behaviors while riding, but continued abusive behavior is not tolerated as it creates an unsafe situation.

• Physical conditions: A person must be able to hold their body up while sitting on the horse. Some spinal conditions may not be suitable for riding.

GallopNYC does work with school and agency groups on a limited schedule. When lessons are available, school children ride with GallopNYC on weekdays from 10:30 am-12:30 pm at one of our four locations. The total length of time for a school group session depends on the number of students attending in the group.

Goals are set for each rider for every sessions and we track lessons and rider progress every week.