Welcome to my arena! My name is Lena and I am a PATH International Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor. Wait, what?
I’ll back up. PATH Intl. stands for the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International and it is the credentialing organization for centers, instructors, and equine specialists. Visit PATH Intl’s website to learn more about who they are and what they do.
What’s a therapeutic riding instructor? I’m glad you asked. A therapeutic riding instructor is trained to work with the special needs population to teach riding abilities and to use horses in animal-assisted therapy. As a therapeutic riding (TR) instructor, I work with individuals to develop physical, mental, and emotional skills through the horse.
So what’s this website all about? I have been involved with therapeutic riding for over twenty years and want to share some of the lessons and insights I’ve learned along the way. Animal-assisted therapy is growing in popularity but it is still a niche market and I hope that I can help answer some questions and share some information in my little area of the internet.
I also wanted to create a place for other instructors to find ideas for lesson plans (check out the Lesson Ideas page) to use in their programs. Feel free to use, adapt, comment, correct, and share your thoughts on any lesson plans I put up! Please note that these are just meant as general ideas and games that may not be appropriate for every rider, horse, or program.
Stick around, check out what this site has to offer, and please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any more questions, comments, or concerns! Thanks for coming along for the ride (pun intended).
The Equine Impact 