|
|
About Us The mission of Strides/Sinlimites Therapeutic Riding Centers is to improve the minds, bodies and spirits of children and adults with special needs through the highest quality of equine-assisted activities and programs. We are commited to being an inspiration and educational resource to the Therapeutic Riding profession, both nationally and internationally. Our vision is a community where all people, regardless of ability, can achieve their fullest potential.
STRIDES Therapeutic Riding is a community-oriented, non-profit 501(c)3 organization. We are a NARHA (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) Premier Accredited Center. Premier Accredited Centers have proven their excellence in providing quality, professional therapeutic riding by meeting established industry standards, demonstrated through an on-site accreditation program. All of our instructors are NARHA Certified Instructors. Our goal is to provide physically, mentally and emotionally challenged individuals an opportunity for emotional and physical growth through horsemanship. Volunteers are the mainstay of our program, along with our carefully chosen and highly trained horses and ponies. In addition to STRIDES' commitment to therapeutic riding, STRIDES also seeks to involve inner city children, homeless children, and at risk children in an activity that will improve their self esteem and teach them tools they can use to make a living as an adult. We are strongly committed to community outreach programs. | Strides History  STRIDES was founded in January, 2000 with the express purpose of expanding the types of riders served in the field to include "invisible" disabilities and abused and disadvantaged people. STRIDES opened its doors at Rancho Cordiella del Norte in Northridge with only one horse, Chiquita, no tack, and over 30 riders. We borrowed two more horses and tack while we built up our ridership and began to purchase tack and find appropriate horses.Strides has grown since then to 18 horses, and serves up to 70 riders per week, We serve phsyically, mentally and emotionally challenged riders of all ages, and have expanded to serve abused teens as well. Our therapeutic team now includes professionals in the fields of Physical Therapy, Psychology, Psychiatry, Nursing, Healing Touch/Reiki and Recreation Therapy. Additionally, Strides/Sinlimites is proud to be the first Spanish-speaking Therapeutic Riding program in the United States! Our Administrative Staff  Nora Fischbach, Strides/Sin Limites Executive Director and Founder has a long history of activism in the area of therapeutic riding. She has twice been a speaker at the NARHA (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) National Conference, and three times at the NARHA Region 11 Conference. She has several published articles on therapeutic riding, maintains the Therapeutic Riding e-group and the NARHA Region 11 e-group, has written and published three books on Therapeutic Riding, is writing two others, and has written the award-winning Strides homepage. Nora has over 23 years of experience in the field of therapeutic riding, and over 30 years experience working with behavior-challenged children, including Autism, mentally disabled and others, as a behaviorist and a special education tutor. Nora has been a guest instructor and lecturer in Hong Kong for the RDA of Hong Kong and Uruguay at Sin Limites, Montevedeo, and was a guest judge at the ParaEquestrian International Horse Show in Venezuela. She taught the first Therapeutic Riding Instruction Course at the University of Pachuca in Mexico. She is on the steering committee of a new Therapeutic Riding E-Library, the first of it's kind on the internet. She has been involved with cutting-edge research on therapeutic riding with the California State University, Northridge Physical Therapy Department. Nora is a NARHA certified instructor, a Special Olympics riding coach, and also teaches able-bodied riders in Hunter/Jumpers and Dressage.
|  Lydia Lercari, Strides/Sinlimites Program Director is the founder of Sin Limites in Uruguay, the first therapeutic riding program in that country. She did an internship and trained for her NARHA certification at Strides in 2000, just as we were opening the program. Returning to Uruguay, she founded 3 branches of Sin Limites and a therapeutic riding program that was a part of the Montevedeo Police Department. Sin Limites is the only therapeutic riding program recognized by the Ministries of Health, Education, Sports and Interior in Uruguay. Lydia has been a presenter at South American and North American therapeutic riding conferences. She is a Special Olympics and Paraequestrian riding coach, a NARHA certified riding instructor, Certificat de Perfectionnement en Readaption par L'Eqitation - University of Bobigny, France and a dressage and jumping instructor for able-bodied riders. Lydia moved to the United States to help us found the first Spanish-speaking therapeutic riding center in California. Our Program Riders are accepted to our program based on an initial evaluation. We follow NARHA guidelines in accepting riders. It is important to us that we do not take riders who will in any way be harmed by the riding experience. Once accepted, goals are set based on the initial evaluation, and riders are then re-evaluated every three months and new goals are set.
Our riding program is multi-faceted. We teach English and Western riding to accomplish specific therapeutic goals. In addition, we offer mounted drill team work, square dancing on horseback, trail riding, as well as providing physical, emotional, behavioral and speech therapy on horseback. We work toward educational goals such as pre-reading and reading, mathematics and sequencing. STRIDES also provides animal-assisted therapy not only through the use of horses, but with the aid of other animals housed on the property. We attend horse shows for the disabled and put on our own horse shows and play days for our riders and others.
Through the use of community outreach programs, STRIDES not only gives our riders the opportunity to ride with and compete against able-bodied riders, we also give disadvantaged people in the community an opportunity to work and ride with the disabled. In a special Work-to-Ride program, Strides provides inner city and abused teens with the opportunity to develop a sense of responsibilty while earning their riding lessons. We have worked with at-risk children and teens from the inner city, abused children, and children who have cancer. We also host international interns who wish to bring therapeutic riding to their countries, and provide an instructor's course for those who want to become therapeutic riding instructors.
STRIDES is committed to improving the lives of our riders through the use of horses. It is not unusual for a child who has never walked before to discover that, though the strength and balance developed on a horse, he or she can now begin to walk. The first words or signs of many of our non-verbal riders are related to riding. Therapy is fun instead of painful when provided on horseback. Learning becomes a game rather than a chore. Our motto, "Reaching For The Stars!" says it all. We see no limits in our riders or what they, and we, can accomplish.
|
|