LTRA spreads Christmas joy
RIDE INTO CHRISTMAS EVENT HELD AT LETHBRIDGE THERAPEUTIC RIDING ASSOCIATION
The Lethbridge Therapeutic Riding Association brought families out to their farm to get the opportunity to experience what their facilities have to offer, all while enjoying some holiday festivities with their Ride into Christmas event.
Sunday evening, people took in interactive activities such as riding horses, a petting zoo filled with various animals, food and drinks, Christmas music, a bonfire to keep warm, a visit from Santa Claus and Doris Wichers Winter Wonderland display. Kids were also able to meet their favourite Lethbridge Hurricanes, as the whole team came out to take in the event.
“We are having our Christmas Festival because we have the Doris Wichers Winter Wonderland for people to experience and so we are doing an open house to give people the opportunity to ride,” says Eilish Short, Program Co-ordinator.
“They get to ride, learn a little bit about the programs that we do, meet the horses that work every day. It brings a lot of people out here that wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to come and see the agricultural side.”
Lethbridge Therapeutic Riding Association is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to providing therapy to people with disabilities through physical and physiological contact with their horses. Therapeutic riding is beneficial to people who wouldn’t normally be able to do much physical activity on their own and can help improve co-ordination, strengthen muscle, increases self-esteem and improves social integration.
“We do give riding lessons primarily to people with special needs, so anybody with a mental or physical disability, that is the main population that utilizes our facility,” says Short.
“Animal therapy is quite fantastic, everybody knows the benefit that animals have but a horse’s pelvis and a human’s pelvis are shaped the same so they actually get quite a lot of physical benefit from sitting on a horse that has been walking for an hour, people who don’t have the capability to be up and moving like that.”
The Lethbridge Therapeutic Riding Association not only opened their doors to those who may not have had the opportunity to explore therapeutic riding before, but also helped develop a night for families to create new Christmas memories. For more information on the riding association and the programs they offer, visit ltra.ca.
Follow @GBobinecHerald on Twitter