Connections Through Horses is a horseback riding center for people with special needs. We are a PATH (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship) member center and all of our instructors are PATH certified. We have a central Denver location and a south location.
Our program
At Connections Through Horses, we utilize the innate talent of horses to help teach. Clients learn how to ride a horse, yes. However, there are many lessons connected with horses that are valuable too! Horses teach confidence – you have to be confident for the horse to want to do anything for you. Horses are herd animals and most of them will be followers all of their lives, they need a leader and that leader is the client working with them You cannot fool a horse, the confidence has to be real. Clients are motivated to make that happen as they want to have the relationship with the horse. Clients learn how to socialize. Communicating with horses is like socializing 101. The horse doesn’t have a hidden agenda, the horse doesn’t judge you because of what you are wearing, communicating with them is simple and pure. Those lessons can be expanded out into more complex human socializing situations. Getting out of comfort zones and dealing with anxiety are part of the package of working with horses. We take it easy and are encouraging when kids are out of their comfort zone and help them through. The happy feelings once they get over their fears are priceless.
Our Classes
Classes consist of a combination of mounted and unmounted activities. Part of the beauty of working with horses is the relationship that is developed with the horse and part of that time is “on the ground” with the horse. We have a riding and groundwork progression to keep kids on track and learning how to ride and handle horses as independently as possible. What you measure you improve upon and we are always keeping track of progress