Sherman horseback riding therapy center awarded grant

SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) – Divine Equine Therapeutic Riding Center in Sherman received a grant to help them better serve their community.

a person feeding a cow through a fence: Local horseback riding center receives grant from Texoma Health Foundation

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Local horseback riding center receives grant from Texoma Health Foundation

“That grant is going to help us expand our services to help other children that can’t get psychotherapy or to come here and add it to our equine services to get more in depth therapy,” Director and instructor at Divine Equine Therapeutic Riding Center Cynthia Nellward said.

Nellward said the grant will go into hiring a psychotherapist for their riders as an additional service.

“It opens a lot of doors for not just us for our community to give them another place to seek help,” Nellward said.

Divine Equine is a therapeutic horseback riding center that works with disabled members of the community and any veterans that struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

They have members of all different ages with the youngest being four years old while their oldest being 80.

As long as they have their doctors approval they are able to ride.

“A psychotherapist will actually work hand and hand with the riding instructor so the riding instructor is going to be saying, you know, hold your reins like this but the therapist is going to be, how are you feeling right now,” Volunteer Laura Hauser said.

Laura Hauser has been a volunteer of Divine Equine Therapeutic Riding Center for the past four years.

Before volunteering her time, she was a member, recovering with a broken leg.

Hauser wrote the 64 page grant that was approved for the proposal.

“It can go either way having somebody there to hold their hand through the process is so important and then they can get the follow up care that they need afterward,” Hauser said.

This is the second time Divine Equine has received a grant from Texoma Health Foundation.

“I’d like to say thank you to Texoma Health Foundation for believing in us and taking their chance with us to give us the money to help others. We really appreciate that,” Nellward said.