Horses needed for equine therapy program in Lethbridge

For the Lethbridge Therapeutic Riding Association (LTRA) horses that meet their unique needs are hard to come by.

“We market, we advertise on Facebook that we need more horses. So we get the horses in and run them through a very rigorous test and make sure we are satisfied with them.” Executive director Rick Austin said.

READ MORE: Lethbridge Therapeutic Riding Association reopens for business

Right now the group has 13 horses to cater to about 50 clients, 18 is their ideal number.

“We need special horses… We probably test 10 horses to find one horse that suits our needs.”

The past two years has been difficult for the association. The roof of the previous arena collapsed in 2014, forcing programs to stop for over year.

READ MORE: Lethbridge Riding Centre roof collapses

They’ve been in their new arena for the past 11 months.

“It did take a while to get clients back in, some of them moved on and went to other facilities, some of them just kind of forgot about it,” Austin said.

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The program focuses mainly on helping people with disabilities learn about riding and horse care.

“These people change your life. Whether you think they do or they don’t they change your life.” Board member John Berezay said.

Berezay’s son has been in the LTRA program for more than 20 years. He’s hoping more people will notice that this service is available in Lethbridge.

“This is a facility everyone can use, we don’t only deal with people with disabilities, we deal with people who want to learn how to ride,” he said.