Horses for Healing, Sunshine Therapeutic Riding Center

Horses for Healing

Sunshine Therapeutic Riding Center

Text by Heather Bennett

Hot Springs is home to a new nonprofit organization that utilizes horses to deliver essential, previously unavailable services to adults and children with disabilities (cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism, wheelchair users, intellectual and developmental disabilities). The organization brings therapeutic riding and access to the only hippotherapy program in the county.

There are around 14,000 children under the age of 18 in Garland County with at least one or more disabilities, and over 20% of the county’s overall population lives with one or more disabilities. Sadly, services for those with disabilities, including critical therapies, are challenging to find. The vision of Sunshine Therapeutic Riding Center is to make hippotherapy and therapeutic riding services accessible to all individuals with disabilities in the greater Garland County area for little to no cost. STRC is the brainchild of Katja and Zach Summerlin, who are both passionate horse owners. The idea for STRC came about after the couple had difficulty finding effective therapies for their son Aiden, who has Down syndrome.

“I used my experience with horses to help Aiden and realized he shouldn’t be the only child in the county with access to therapy this effective,” said Summerlin. “Our purpose is to create a facility in Hot Springs that changes lives through horses,” said Summerlin. “But we can’t do it alone, so we need the continuing support of this incredible community to serve the thousands of individuals in need with life-changing therapies.”

“Our programs help build confidence, trust, social skills, core strength, balance, flexibility, self-control, and coordination,” said Summerlin. “Through weekly lessons, our students improve sensory processing, awareness, concentration, muscle tone, and hand-eye coordination. Our students have so much fun riding and playing that they don’t even realize how hard they are working.”

The Summerlin’s believe this center is their calling. Born and raised in Switzerland, horses have been Katja’s passion since childhood. Katja will serve as Executive Director and has 25 years of experience with horses, including guiding wilderness horse pack trips, cattle ranch work, natural horsemanship, and equine therapy programs. Zach was born and raised in Oklahoma and now works as a law enforcement park ranger for Hot Springs National Park. The Summerlins have lived in Hot Springs since 2011, and they now own a beautiful 35-acre ranch located on Sunshine Road, one mile from the Lake Hamilton Schools.

The Sunshine Therapeutic Riding Center provides safe, accessible, high-quality instruction in therapeutic horsemanship to improve the physical, mental, and social abilities of children and adults with special needs to help the physical, emotional, and mental development of people of all ages with disabilities. STRC is looking for volunteers, donors, and passionate ambassadors to support this vital community resource. STRC also needs additional horses to be trained to serve as trusted, four-legged therapists for this very important job. ∞

STRC has been approved by the IRS for a 501(c)(3) status. Tax ID 84-1747932. Contributions are 100% tax deductible! Katja Summerlin – Executive Director Phone: (501) 762-3157 / Email: SunshineRidingCenter@gmail.com www.SunshineRidingCenter.org Donations- Mail to Mike Tuohey, CPA 2836 Malvern Ave, Ste D, Hot Springs, AR 71901