Volunteer Information

At the present time, we have programs operating Monday - Thursday between the hours of 11:30 AM to 7:00 PM. We have our I-CAN program on Monday and Wednesday from 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM. Our Therapeutic Riding program is on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Our competition team works on Saturdays from 2:00 – 3:30 PM. This class also participates in local shows on selected Saturday evenings and always we always need assistance.

We do have opportunities for weekend volunteers during the year that we will announce on our website. These are usually horse shows our riders compete in or that we have been asked to work as a fund-raiser.

We do appreciate your desire to help with our horses. We do include horse grooming and warm-up exercises in our training so that our volunteers can get our horses ready for our programs. Occasionally, we do need extra work or training for new horses or those that might need some problem solving. We keep a list of volunteers for this purpose. Do to the sensitive nature and requirements of training for this type of program, we carefully select and train those who do this work for us. If you are interested, please contact us to set up an interview.

If you are between the ages of 14 and 16, you can work as one of our equine volunteers. You will be taught to groom and tack horses for our programs. You will also be trained in warm- up exercises for our horses that will prepare the horse for the session and also allow you to evaluate their physical and mental condition that day. If you are age 16 or older, you can assist as a horse leader, side-walker, spotter, or class-room assistant. You will receive specific training for each of these tasks. We require that you attend our volunteer training session before you participate in our programs. These sessions will be posted as new sessions are being prepared for each year.

We have many jobs around our property that we always need help with. We need landscape work done all summer long. We are preparing to start several building projects that we use volunteers for. Our fencing quite frequently needs repair. We are in need of fund-raisers. We have times that we need help in the office.

We wish we had the facilities for all children to come but we do not. Our programs require controlled environments so we are not able to allow children who are not volunteering to be on site. If you make arrangements with the instructor beforehand we do have some opportunities for them to observe their siblings at work – supervised only. We also do not allow pets.

Our starting age for our junior volunteers is 14. But all transportation must be provided by the parents.

We do not allow anyone who has not been trained to volunteer to take part in our programs. This causes too much confusion and distraction and we need our volunteers to be focused.

Every year we have groups that come to help us with land management and building projects. We are very glad to put these groups to work. Just let us know when you are available.

Please feel free to do so. We will give it immediate attention.

Yes. We do not allow anyone to work in our programs without going through our volunteer training sessions. We will post the dates for these sessions on our website.

Our volunteers are the heart of our programs. They provide the healing hands and the loving encouragement that our clients need. We want our children and adults to know that they are special and we need volunteers that are special. We consider our volunteers special because they have to have a unique patience and caring heart to work with our programs. Our clients have many challenges and they need to feel safe and accepted by everyone involved. Our volunteers may have the opportunity to be the one person this child or adult bond with. So you are very important.

Volunteers who come to help with activities other than our programs are always appreciated. We do expect disciplined behavior and respect of all our premises from all our volunteers, individually or in groups. Our volunteers have always been willing to do what was needed without expecting any reward beyond our sincere appreciation for a job well-done. We try to make it a very pleasant experience for all involved and we have special volunteer appreciation days where we try to give a little back.