RideAbility

MISSION STATEMENT: Our mission is to serve families of children or adults with special needs; providing horse back riding and related activities; creating a fun and therapeutic environment WHERE EVERYONE IS ABLE! (enhancing physical, spiritual, emotional and mental health)

VISION: Rideability's vision is to continue to provide services for families in our community. We want to continue to be family friendly, down to earth, loving and accommodating to families in our community who need that extra love and support. RideAbility is always searching for effective community support, and creative ways to keep serving these special people.

HISTORY: RideAbility began in 1997, founded by Ellen Newman, Mary Lubahn, and Lynne McCutcheon. Mary had given birth to a daughter with a disability and was afraid she would never get to take her daughter horse back camping or share the enjoyment of horses with her daughter. Mary’s neighbor (Ellen), with Mary, and her daughter’s pediatric physical therapist (Lynne) decided to research therapeutic riding. The first year was financed by a grant from the Minnesota 4-H Foundation and the volunteers were members of the Roscoe Rockets Minnesota 4-H Club. Their Community Pride Project won a State Fair trip! What a fun way to start a therapeutic riding program. The project started with 3 students and grew quickly to 8 and then over 20 students. RideAbility was recognized for: 1) Providing therapeutic recreation for children with disabilities 2) Emphasizing mental health rewards of interacting with peers (with and without disabilities) 3) Including parents as active program participants 4) Providing a support network for the parents with common life difficulties. Ellen, Mary, and Lynne set-up and ran the program for five years and finished incorporating it as non-profit, setting up a board of directors, gaining United Way funding, and completing processes and forms, etc. The quality of services provided has always been excellent, much in part due to having a dedicated physical therapist involved from the very beginning. We are very family centered, inspired by the original idea of providing horse back riding for children with disabilities and their siblings. This implementation of inclusion is quite unique for a therapeutic horse back riding center. RideAbility received an award for inclusion in 1999, presented by Arc SE MN. Including the parents in the barn and arena as sidewalkers creates a special atmosphere allowing the successes to be taken home and the entire family dynamic to receive a positive impact. We think of it as: the magic of the horse going home to your living room!

We also provide events each year for the whole family, including: 1) Annual Banquet themed for family fun 2) Family Fun Barn Dance Fundraiser 3) Summer Open House at the barn focused on honoring those who serve our country and community 4) Student Horse Show for students and families. These activities are in addition to the horse back riding classes that our students attend. After more than ten years of RideAbility, Mary Lubahn’s daughter was riding independently, developing adaptive methods, owning her own horse, and (YES!) she has gone horse back camping with her mom!

RideAbility's 3 offerings to clients:

1) Registered group lessons. We offer group lessons once a week for 5 weeks. This is called a session. We have four sessions per year. In the spring we serve adults, in summer 1 and summer 2 we focus on the children and their families and in the fall we focus on the adult population again. The registered group lessons are the main part of our program. Most of our classes are on Monday and Tuesday evenings, with additional classes being added on Wednesdays or afternoons as we have volunteer availability. In addition to the lessons, our clients are invited to an event at the barn each month during the riding season. These events include another time for them to ride horses and spend time in related equine activities.

2) Privately scheduled lessons. Private lessons are offered as a way to fill the additional needs of families in our community. These are somewhat limited according to instructor availability.

3) OneTimeFunTime visits. These visits were designed to support the community groups and schools who call RideAbility and ask to bring their clients to the farm. We have defined a set of equine activities that can be customized to each individual group and their needs. Normally, the group will spend two or three hours at the farm.