Heal With Horses
Taylor Russell
Equestrian Bridges, home to humans and horses, has provided an innovative and unique type of therapy to Northwest Arkansas for over 10 years.
Through individually curated sessions, trainers and therapists improve the quality of life for their clients, Sallie Elderton said. Trainers provide life-changing experiences to children and adults through the bond they help their clients create with the horses.
Shanna Dozier, executive director and founder of Equestrian Bridges, opened her doors to the public in 2012, originally located in Siloam Springs. The group has since relocated to Rogers. When Dozier first opened Equestrian Bridges, she said her main focus was to help children with special needs through the use of horses. Over time she created an all-inclusive program to provide services to children and anyone else in need.
“The program evolved. We started working with siblings and then we started working with their parents,” Dozier said. “Some of those parents might have been a veteran or first responder, so we opened the doors to first responders, veterans, and women empowerment. So now we use equine therapy to help all kinds of people. We focus on the mental health benefits that the horses have to offer.”
Dozier said she and her team of licensed therapists, horse handlers, trainers, and speech pathologists make sure the horse’s health is the main priority. At Equestrian Bridges, they treat their horses as coworkers, and strive to provide top-notch quality, but realize that achieving this takes a lot of funding. Without funding, it proves difficult to overcome these barriers and continue educating and helping those in need.
Nonprofit financial issues are a reality regardless of philanthropic work. Therapy, in general, is not always a gold mine. For nonprofits that utilize horses this is most definitely the case. Using horses in the therapeutic and nonprofit realm can sometimes become a burden, as horses are one of the most expensive animals to use, Dozier said.
Equestrian Bridges received a large donation of land located in Lowell. If Equestrian Bridges had the funding, Dozier’s dream of building a center on this land so more people could come to the center would be within reach.
“If we had the funding, we have land, so we would improve, because we could open our site up for more clients, more people, and more programs,” Dozier said. “At this 5-acre track in Rogers, using a horse and an arena kind of limits how many kids and how many families we can see.”
Equestrian Bridges has many volunteer opportunities such as being a “mini buddy” for those who want to play with, groom, and love on miniature horses. Those who want can also join the fundraising committee to help plan the annual Mini Derby that coincides with the Kentucky Derby in May.
For more information on how people can get involved at Equestrian Bridges, visit their website here