It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The Volunteer Office is bringing on the holiday cheer with your favorites restocked: hot cocoa, cider, and peppermint candies! Come on in, take a break, and enjoy a cozy cup of cocoa. We’re so grateful for the time you’ve...
Blankets help horses regulate and maintain their body heat. Some horses with thin or short coats wear blankets during the winter to stay warm on chilly nights. Typically, when nighttime temperatures drop below 55 degrees, a few select horses are outfitted with winter...
In the wild, horses travel around 30 miles daily, grazing and drinking (EquiMed, 2017). For horses that live in a facility, sun pens and mechanical walkers (such as a Eurowalker) can help achieve well-rounded daily exercise in addition to riding and lunging. The Shea...
Congratulations to Tony Bogle our new volunteer of the month! Why we love him: Volunteer Services Manager, Michele Gingras, calls Tony our ‘on-call sidewalker’. “You see him here every week; he can be put in any spot with any client and does a great job. When he’s not...
The Shea Center has a select group of exceptional horses labeled as “staff only.” What does this mean? These horses, due to their unique personalities, receive specialized, one-on-one training from highly skilled staff or volunteers. This focused attention helps them...
What are side reins, and why do we use them? Side reins are a training aid used when riding or lunging a horse. Lunging is a training technique that involves moving a horse around a handler in a circle while the handler is attached to the horse with a long lead rein,...
The Shea Center is a learning facility that takes on select students in occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, and mental health. Students in these fields require hundreds of clinical hours to fulfill their degree and mentorship to build...
The horses at The Shea Center are vital in helping clients achieve their goals. Expenses are required to help keep the herd in excellent condition. To this end, we rely on generous donors to support our horse sponsorship program. The funds are used to acquire...
Did you know that horses have around 205 bones and 700 muscles? A unique fact about horses is that their eyes are set on each side of their head, allowing them to see about 350 degrees. Due to this anatomical distinction, a horse's depth perception is less than that...
Naomi is a joyful 3-year-old preschooler who has been participating in physical therapy using hippotherapy at The Shea Center for a year. Born with vocal cord paralysis, Naomi was also later diagnosed with Poland syndrome, a condition marked by missing muscles and...