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Positive Strides Therapeutic Riding Center is celebrating 45 years of providing equine-assisted therapy to Eastern Shore residents with special needs. Its mission is to promote healing, hope and growth while building confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of accomplishment for individuals through its services.
Executive Director Kimberly Hopkins Thomas said she and the center’s board of directors hope to use the nonprofit’s 45th anniversary to promote awareness of the program, located at 6292 Statum Road in Preston, and amp up fundraising.
The nonprofit, formerly Talbot Special Riders, got its start in 1981 when Jessie Browne, Sandy King, Kathy Stoddard, and Vonnie Rust got together and combined their love of horses and helping people, starting out at a farm in St. Michaels, Thomas said. Sessions were only held in the spring and fall, and it was all volunteer-run at that point.
“The backbone of the program has always been our amazing volunteers,” she said and more are always welcome. Thomas herself started out as a volunteer with the program as a teenager. Pre-pandemic, Positive Strides had probably 50 active volunteers; that number fell when everything came to a halt, but it is back on the rise.
Thomas and her daughters had just bought the farm in Preston where Positive Strides is currently located, and she was looking for some extra income when she saw an ad about Talbot Special Riders needing another riding instructor. She already had experience teaching riders with special needs and said it really held her heart. She started working as a riding instructor for Talbot Special Riders in 2003 and got her certification through Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International.
In 2016, the board approached Thomas and said they wanted to move and expand the program so the riders could benefit year round. They decided they wanted to move the program to Thomas’ farm and hired her on as executive director.
“So, I was the first paid employee there, not only was I the executive director, but I was the jack of all trades. I was the instructor for all at that point. By the time we started to grow, we had 50 riders a week, and all the other stuff that went with it,” she said.
When the program moved to Preston, it didn’t own anything. They had to purchase and put up a barn on the site, construct an arena, buy an office trailer, purchase tack, and find program horses.
“Thank God for our volunteers! Everything was ready to go,” Thomas said. “Between July 2016 and September 2016, they were hoofing it, pun intended.”
The name change came a couple years later. The program was already serving riders across the Mid-Shore, not just Talbot County. Out of three proposed alternatives, Positive Strides was unanimously chosen.
“We have greatly expanded the programming. We now do 32 weeks a year – spring, summer, winter, fall. We have sessions. We have breaks in between because the volunteers, and especially our horses, need the breaks,” Thomas said.
Programs offered include therapeutic riding; hippotherapy; and equine-assisted learning, which includes multiple programs, like CATCH Riders, Time to Ride, PonyPower Workshops, Silver Saddles, Horses Healing Heroes, and Horse Hands. Descriptions of each program are available on the website, positivestridescenter.org.
“One common goal I have for every single rider is that they’re able to experience some form of independence while they’re riding,” Thomas said.
Positive Strides offers both riding and non-riding programs, and both offer benefits.
“Horses are very rhythmic, and they’re breathing, and you can feel it when you’re brushing, and the strokes of the brushing, the repetitiveness of the strokes, and you’re seeing the coat shine as you brush. That alone is such a calming, wonderful grounding piece,” she said.
Currently, Positive Strides has six program horses, two of which are older, and the program could really use eight, Thomas said.
Funding is always needed; people can sponsor a rider or a program horse or contribute to other needs. Positive Strides hopes to launch a capital campaign prior to its 50th anniversary to build a covered arena and new office space.
This fall, Thomas hopes to launch a program called Positive Strides Pathways where professionals will give community talks on program-related topics, such as how to care for an older horse or art therapy.
The 10-week fall therapeutic riding session starts in September. For information, see positivestridecenter.org.
