Friday Standing Ovation by Ovation Riding
This week’s honoree: Equest.
Each Friday, Horse Nation teams up with Ovation Riding to spotlight an individual or organization that is doing good work in the horse world. This week, we salute Equest.
Presented by:
This week’s honoree:
Equest is a therapeutic riding center based in Wylie, Texas and is a 501© (3) charitable tax-exempt organization. Equest’s mission is to enhance the quality of life for children and adults with diverse needs using horses to bring hope and healing through equine assisted activities and therapies.
From Equest:
Founded in 1981, Equest provides therapeutic sports riding classes and hippotherapy to approximately 500 riders annually with the help of 35 horses, 12 certified riding instructors and more than 700 volunteers who provide 35,000+ hours of direct service each year. After being the first therapeutic riding program in Texas, we have become one of the largest non-profit therapeutic riding centers in the state. We serve children and adults with all types of physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities.
The average cost for an Equest rider per year is $6,500. Equest underwrites 86% of all civilian rider fees and 100% of all veteran rider fees. Equest anticipates serving between 300-400 riders at both locations via equine assisted therapies and activities and an additional 3,400 children via community outreach over the next two years.
Equest now has two locations: new this spring, Equest has facilities in the new Texas Horse Park in southeast Dallas. This is a 304-acre site located in the heart of the Great Trinity Forest and owned by the city, and is just eight miles from downtown Dallas. Equest at the Texas Horse Park will have 38 stalls, a full-size covered arena, outdoor arena, and 6,000-square feet of administration and therapy space.
Children’s programming at the Texas Horse Park will provide daily therapy, educational and outreach services to benefit Dallas residents and provide a new resource for the underserved areas of south and west Dallas. Equest at the Texas Horse Park will also house the Equest Veterans Program, which currently serves approximately 100 veterans.
Equest is also developing a program called “Equest Grow North,” a program that uses therapy horses to bring veterans and first responders together so that they can work with youth and third-party partners to build strong communities. The Equest Grow North program is designed to provide participants with the resources that will enable them to adapt to civilian life by becoming a part of their communities through their service to their communities.
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