Chastain Horse Park is an inclusive community of trainers, volunteers, and instructors serving children, teens and adults that come from all walks of life, all ages, all abilities and all geographies surrounding the greater Atlanta area.
Our mission is to empower riders of all abilities through life-changing relationships with horses.
Our vision is to become the model recognized by professional equestrian organizations throughout the U.S. for bringing riders of all abilities together into a single inclusive community.
Through our Therapeutic Program, we serve individuals with a broad range of physical, cognitive and emotional abilities and all socioeconomic backgrounds. Through our School and Boarder Programs, we provide opportunities for beginner, intermediate and advanced riders to excel in the sport of horsemanship.

Chastain Horse Park's Therapeutic Program offers three primary services within Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies (EAAT): hippotherapy, equine assisted learning for outreach groups, and therapeutic riding. Below is information regarding therapeutic riding and hippotherapy. Feel free to visit our website www.chastainhorsepark.org that can provide a plethora of information.

THERAPEUTIC RIDING
Population served—children (4 years and older) and adults with various disabilities. There are several precautions and contraindications but it’s case by case with each individual. Therapeutic riding uses equine-assisted activities for the purpose of contributing positively to the cognitive, physical, emotional, and social well-being of people with disabilities. Therapeutic riding provides benefits in the areas of health, education, sport and recreation & leisure. Horseback riding rhythmically moves the rider’s body in a manner similar to a human gait and experiencing the motion of the horse can be very therapeutic. Individuals with physical disabilities often show improvement in flexibility, balance and muscle strength, sensory integration, directed attention, relating to people, listening behaviors, verbal communication and nonverbal communication. In addition to the therapeutic benefits, riding also provides recreational opportunities for individuals to enjoy the outdoors. These equine activities are conducted primarily to enhance our participant’s horsemanship skills and provide lifetime opportunities for dynamic recreational exercise.
Service conducted by: Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International Registered Certified Instructor who has a strong equine background as well as an understanding of various disabilities. Instructors and volunteers work closely with riders to ensure safe riding sessions. (Site: PATH Intl.)
Two side-walkers and a horse leader generally assist a new rider in a session. Typically, therapeutic riding sessions are either 30-minute private sessions or 60 minute group sessions (with no more than 4-5 riders/instructor at once). We offer lessons 7 days a week. For therapeutic riding, we are an approved vendor for some of the Medicaid waiver governmental agencies such as Acumen Fiscal Agent, InCommunity Atlanta (formerly Georgia Community Support & Solutions), Easter Seals/Champions for Children, Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Trust Fund, and more. We also have internal scholarships if the financial aspect is a deterrent to signing up. If you would like a scholarship application, please request one. Therapeutic riding is typically not covered by insurance.

HIPPOTHERAPY
Population served– children (2 years and older) & adults with mild to severe neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction (not limited to). Hippotherapy is a physical, occupational, and speech-language therapy treatment strategy that utilizes equine movement as part of an integrated intervention program to achieve functional outcomes. Equine movement provides multidimensional movement, which is variable, rhythmic and repetitive. The horse provides a dynamic base of support, making it an excellent tool for increasing trunk strength and control, balance, building overall postural strength and endurance, addressing weight bearing, and. motor planning. Equine movement offers well-modulated sensory input to vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile and visual channels. During gait transitions, the patient must perform subtle adjustments in the trunk to maintain a stable position. When a patient is sitting forward astride the horse, the horse’s walking gait imparts movement responses remarkably similar to normal human gait. The effects of equine movement on postural control, sensory systems, and motor planning can be used to facilitate coordination and timing, grading of responses, respiratory control, sensory integration skills and attentional skills. Equine movement can be used to facilitate the neurophysiologic systems that support all of our functional daily living skills. Hippotherapy is only offered on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays. Sometimes hippotherapy is covered by private insurance.
Service conducted by a licensed therapist that has, at minimum, passed their American Hippotherapy Association level 1 certification.
Physical Therapists: The physical therapist can overlay a variety of motor tasks on the horse’s movement to address the motor needs of each patient and to promote functional outcomes in skill areas related to gross motor ability such as sitting, standing, and walking.
Occupational Therapists: The occupational therapist is able to combine the effects of the equine movement with other standard intervention strategies for working on fine motor control, sensory integration, feeding skills, attentional skills, and functional daily living skills in a progressively challenging manner.
Speech-Language Pathologists: The speech-language pathologist is able to use equine movement to facilitate the physiologic systems that support speech and language. When combined with other standard speech-language intervention strategies, the speech-language pathologist is able generate effective remediation of communication disorders and promote functional communication outcomes. (site: The American Hippotherapy Association, Inc.)

In short, the major differentiation of our services are instructors provide learning experiences in therapeutic horsemanship and therapists provide medical treatment in Hippotherapy. Instructor’s focus of a riding lesson is learning to improve riding skills. Therapists focus on the medical treatment goal of functional outcomes of therapy.

All types of equine assisted activities and therapies (therapeutic riding and hippotherapy) are highly beneficial to individuals with special needs.