For the past couple weeks, I’ve been working on a project for the Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center in Redmond. I’ve had the tremendous pleasure of working with the nonprofit organization to make a memorial garden in front of their office building, which they have wholly supported me in doing.

The Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center was founded in 1976 by Margaret Dunlap, who had multiple sclerosis. While riding a horse, she discovered that it actually delayed the advancement of her disease. From this revelation, she founded this organization in order to help other people in the same way.

The Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center is dedicated to improving the mind, body and spirits of children and adults with disabilities. They do this through activities and equestrian therapy available to members of the community. The Little Bit Center also strives to be an inspiration as well as an educational resource to the therapeutic riding community.

From the meek starting from of one horse and five riders, they are now one of the largest accredited and industry leading Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH), and one of the largest full-time equestrian theory programs in the United States. With now 22 horses and 350 volunteers, the riding center is able to give rides to 230 patients per week.

Their two main programs are adaptive riding and hippotherapy. Both of these are designed to use the unique qualities of horses to improve the lives of people with disabilities in our community. They do this by strengthening their muscles, preventing bone weakness and joint dislocation, while improving balance and hand-eye coordination.

These benefits promote confidence and independence in our disabled community members. This allows them to make and obtain goals in life just like every other member in society. This is an amazing organization that I have had the pleasure to work with this summer. If this sounds appealing or at all interesting to you, there are internship opportunities as well as plenty of volunteer opportunities. The contact website is littlebit.org.

Wesley Crowe

Kirkland