SpiritHorse Therapeutic provides free, one-on-one equine-assisted therapy on a weekly basis for 424 children with disabilities who reside in ten North Texas counties. We serve more children than any therapeutic riding center in the world.

SpiritHorse has teamed with two of the leading researchers in the field of autism at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry and The Autism Treatment Center of Dallas in a groundbreaking study of the methods developed at SpiritHorse for treatment of children with autism.

One of the methods developed by SpiritHorse relates to the fact that most people with autism feel a great deal of comfort and peace when exposed to body compression. We have 148 riders in the autism spectrum who take weekly equine-assisted treatment at our facilities in Corinth, Texas. We have been studying the impact of using eventing safety vests, tightened very tightly, as compression apparatus for our riders with autism with often dramatic results. The calming effect of the compression has opened doors to communication, participation, and learning for many of our riders.

We have only a few safety vests to use for this purpose. We need vests in all sizes, from those fitting 3 year olds to those for adults so that all of our riders with autism can receive the benefits of this new method. Following the autism study, SpiritHorse will include this method in our training of therapeutic riding instructors worldwide.

All donations to SpiritHorse are tax-deductible. Thank you for helping the SpiritHorse children.