Send a Disabled Child to Horse Therapy for a Year

Summer of Smiles

This summer was full of smiles at the organization. The children in our Program Free Therapeutic Riding for Children with Disabilities continued becoming better at riding, improving their general health.  In September the children and their parents gathered to celebrate their success. 

They were excited to find out that their instructor is expecting and will very soon bring a new member to our big family. Fortunately, a total of 9 wonderful volunteers divided in 3 teams were here to help out during the therapy sessions and caring for the horses. The volunteers came to us from Germany, Portugal, and France thanks to the European Solidarity Corps Program ‘’Young People and Horses Make a Difference for Children with Disabilities 2021-2022’’.

Our best student - Johan, already 9 year old, had his first ride by himself!

He got to meet the children from the Sofia Democratic School. They came to us to help in training the therapy horses and learn new skills. The initiative is part of the international project ‘’Building Skills Through Therapy Animals’’ we are partnering in, supported by the Erasmus+ Program

In the meantime we are hard working with our partner organizations from Belgium, Italy, and Bulgaria on producing Guidelines within the project ‘’Youth in Equine-Assisted Therapy’’. The main goal is to spread methods and good practices of working with horses for improvement of young people’s physical and mental conditions. The project is realized with the support of the Erasmus+ Program.

The happy faces, the progress of the children with disabilities, and the support from partners and donors is the force that drives us forward and gives us strength to carry on our mission for the children’s brighter future. We thank you all!

The bad economic situation in Bulgaria has affected our everyday work and has increased the cost of every therapy session. Thanks to our donors the children in our Program continue improving by having their free individual therapy sessions.  

In our struggle to keep providing high quality free therapeutic riding for children with disabilities we have created the project ‘’Youth in Equine-Assisted Therapy’’, supported by the European Union. In May 2022 we were honored to host international events with specialists in equine-assisted therapy practices, young people with special needs and their caretakers, youth workers, and our partners. They came to exchange good practices from France, Belgium, and Bulgaria. We spent 5 days in getting to know each other and building up our professional knowledge and skills.

The project is only part of our effort to ensure therapeutic riding within our organization is up-to-date and includes the latest novelty in the field which continues to develop rapidly. We believe that is the path towards successful establishment of our Center.