Helping Hands Therapeutic Riding Center  

         NARHA Premier Accredited Center   

HHTRC is a Premier Accredited Center with (NARHA) North American Riding for the Handicapped Association adhering to over 140 polices and procedures in administration (not-for-profit oversight, board policies, operating procedures) privacy (HIPAA), programming (files, forms and documents), fiscal responsibility (financial policies, audit) , facility (risk management manual), and equine management (documented care).

Helping Hands Therapeutic Riding Center (HHTRC) has been operating from its equestrian facility near Lake Lotawana, Missouri since July 2004. HHTRC is the first program of its kind in Jackson County to have a facility specifically designed towards the goals and needs of its students.  Having this private facility allows the program to focus on educations, improvement and expansion.

HHTRC provides an unequaled setting for equestrian activities, with enough exhibits and events for all our riders to enjoy.  Currently there is a 11-stall barn on 24 acres, grass paddocks with run-in sheds and handicapped accessible bathroom. An indoor arena is scheduled to be built in the summer of 2007. 

The program employs the only nationally certified therapist in Hippotherapy (HPOT) in both Kansas City and Jackson County.  HHTRC is home to the North American Riding for the Handicapped Missouri State Director and National Center Accreditation Visitor, another mark of distinction and representative of the experience and program quality at HHTRC.

This year, HHTRC will give over 3,200 therapy sessions. Each week at least two new families contact HHTRC requesting the support of the Hippotherapy program.  These eager families are referred by physical and occupational therapists, physicians, Kansas City Regional Health Center and by the families currently enrolled in the program who are experiencing the benefits of Hippotherapy. 

HHTRC has constructed its own special ADA compliant wheelchair mounting ramp, dressage and lesson ring, and gathering room.  Moreover, there is plenty of space available for expansion as the program grows to serve greater numbers of persons with special needs.

Five year strategic expansion plan includes an outpatient treatment center for pediatric physical and occupational therapy. 

Helping Hands has organized and hosted the HHTRC Autumn Horse Show for the last 3 years.  Riders with special needs and able-bodied riders from neighboring therapeutic riding programs compete in the same ring. Their smiles are as long as their ribbons! 

Fifteen horses and over 60 trained volunteers contribute to this special program which enables children and adults with disabilities (which include autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and traumatic injuries) time to actually enjoy their therapy.  With sunshine on their faces, fresh spring air blowing gently through their hair, and proud supportive family members watching from ringside bleachers, over 70 individuals engage in some of the most profoundly effective therapy – Hippotherapy.  This dynamic break from the standard hospital therapy office provides a unique combination of therapy, education and sport to children and adults with physical and mental disabilities in a relaxed, goal-directed and empirically supported modality.

Hippotherapy uses the multidimensional movements of a horse to achieve specific therapeutic functional outcomes, which are designed specifically around the therapeutic goals for each rider. Currently, three part-time Pediatric, Occupational and Physical Therapists use selected horses as mobile therapeutic treatment tools. A horse’s rhythmic, repetitive movements work to improve the muscle tone, balance, posture, coordination, strength, flexibility and cognitive skills of the patients. The movement of the horse also generates responses in the patient that are similar to, and essential for, walking. A therapist addresses various therapeutic goals by having the client ride in different positions; sitting or lying forwards, backwards or sideways; standing in the stirrups; and riding without holding. In addition therapists can have riders stretch and reach while on a horse.

Therapeutic Horseback Riding is under the direction of NARHA Certified Instructors teaching  horsemanship skills in a group setting.  Much like hippotherapy the client is matched with a horse and helmet prior to setting goals that enhance skills in mounting and dismounting, reining, balance and posture and care of the horse.  Riders may choose to compete at in-house horse shows or at American Quarter Horse Association Shows (AQHA) or United Professional Horsemanship Association (UPHA) shows at the American Royal .