Willow Farm Therapeutic Riding (WFTR) was established in 2000 and is based in Marquette, MI at Willow Farm Boarding Stable. The first year started with a very small pilot group of 10 students from Bay Cliff Health Camp in Big Bay, MI. Since then the program has grown to serve as many as 125 students in a season.
Willow Farm Therapeutic Riding serves as a center for continual development, implementation and evaluation of a therapeutic riding program for children and young adults between the ages of 4 and 26, all of whom have a physician diagnosed disability.
Willow Farm Therapeutic Riding serves as a center for continual development, implementation and evaluation of a therapeutic riding program for children and young adults between the ages of 4 and 26, all of whom have a physician diagnosed disability.
Services
About us
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The gait of the horse is very similar to that of a walking person due to physiology of the pelvis. Riding stimulates neuromuscular pathways that target balance and coordination, muscle strength and endurance as well as flexibility. It also stimulates different pathways that include speech, processing, and non-verbal ways of interacting.
Our Instructors
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We have always tried to be able to offer our students the best possible time we can while they are on the farm. Our instructors have many years experience with horses and continue their horse education as well as their instruction education every year. Our Instructors are all certified to some degree either through PATH International, EFMHA and/ or through licensed therapeutic professions.
Volunteers
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We cannot express our gratitude for volunteers enough. Our program would not be able to be what it is without them. For our group sessions we need up to 15 volunteers per hour. We find that many of the benefits that the riders get through the program crossover to the volunteers. The smiles we see on the riders are infectious.
Support/Fundraising
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Our program has been generously supported throughout the years and we strive to continue the relationships with those donors. Grants from foundations, service clubs and individual donors are just a few of the ways that we are able to support our program. We are brainstorming new fundraising ideas at the moment.
Therapeutic Riding
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Therapeutic Riding began in Europe and has been using horses to support people with disabilities in growth and improvements cognitively, physically, emotionally and socially since the 1950's. Since therapeutic riding's development, there have been many discoveries about the ways that horses can aid an individual.
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