"Kate" |
~ Autumn is owned by KTRA ~
Birthday: Autumn was born in the year 2000 Breed: Miniature Horse Color: Bay Gender: Mare Fun Facts: 1) Autumn is the smallest horse at KTRA, and although Autumn is small, she is still a horse not a pony! 2) Autumn was abandoned by her previous owner and rescued by “My Little Pony Horse Rescue” in October 2013. Autumn was adopted by KTRA in 2014. |
~ Chevy owned by KTRA- donated by Katie Leach~
Birthday: Born in June, 2007 Breed: Canadian/Morgan Color: Chestnut Gender: Gelding Fun Facts: 1) Before coming to KTRA, Chevy competed in eventing and explored lots of trails with his previous owner 2) Chevy is known for having an outgoing personality and a wild hairdo! |
Tandy is leased by KTRA from Daylen and Matina Callison ~
Birthday: Born in the year 2005 Breed: Paint/Draft Color: Bay Paint Gender: Mare Fun Facts: 1) Tandy will eat just about anything! She loves bean and cheese burritos, granola bars, cookies and donuts! 2) Before coming to KTRA Tandy was used as a trail horse |
~Montana is leased to KTRA from Daphne Dodd~
Birthday: Montana was born in the year 2004 Breed: Quarter Horse/Paint Color: Black and White Paint Gender: Mare Fun Facts: 1) Montana is ridden in a bridle called a “Hackamore”, which does not include having a bit in her mouth 2) Montana sometimes gets mistaken for a dairy cow due to her striking and unique markings! |
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The Ideal Therapy Horse
Although therapeutic horses come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and breeds, they tend to share some common characteristics. Most therapeutic riding (TR) horses fall between 14 hands (the size of a large pony) and 16 hands (the size of the average race horse). A suitable TR horse will typically fall on the “stocky” side, with a short-coupled confirmation. Because some riders can have low muscle tone or difficulty balancing, even gentle work can be taxing on the muscular-skeletal system of these animals. For this reason, a sturdy bearing is important for the long-term comfort and usability. TR horses do not need to be top performers, but must be sound and possess good, clean gaits in order to produce the type of “three-dimensional” movement (up/down, back/front, side/side) that is associated with therapeutic benefit.
Offer a Retirement Home
Although their work with KTRA is not physically demanding, our horses are subject to quite the difficult job! For most of their lessons, our horses are led by a horse leader but also receiving input from the student and the two side helpers. Think about how you can become overwhelmed when receiving 4 different signals of how to do the same thing! The average therapeutic riding horse can spend about 5 years in a program before reaching burnout. KTRA allows our horses tell us they are ready for retirement in a variety of ways – some physical and some behavioral – it depends on the individual horse.
When a horse is ready for retirement, we begin the task of finding them a qualified home, one where they can spend their days just being a horse. |
Retired July 25, 2017 - thank you to Erin Mackenzie for giving our special angel a loving retirement home. Enjoy your trail rides together! Fantasy aka Lucy LOVES having one special person to dote on her.
Breed: Dutch Warmblood Thoroughbred X Gender: Mare Color: Chestnut Birthday: April 29, 1999 – 17yrs old as of 2016 Owned by KTRA Fantasy used to compete in 3 day eventing but was leased to us by her owner in 2013 after she went back to school and did not have the time to ride her consistently. She has quickly become one of the staff and riders favorites, because of her quiet calm nature and willingness to try anything. Fantasy is now wheel chair lift trained and can carry our more supported riders with ease. She absolutely loves to switch it up on occasion and go on a trail ride |
Retired March 2019 - thank you to the Smith family for giving our Grumpy Grandpa his last forever home! Enjoy the trails Hudson!
Breed: Quarter Horse X Percheron Born: July 1997 Sex: Gelding Leased from Sara Sellmer in October 2014 Hudson is approximately 15.3hh and a very new member on the KTRA therapy team. Hudson has had much success with his owner in 3 day eventing in the past. Today at 18 years young he is looking to slow it down just a little by becoming a therapy horse. He has passed his 45 day trial with us and we are very excited to see Hudson in action with some of our youth at risk riders this spring. |
Retired June 16, 2019 - thank you to Erica Gray Gowan and her family for adopting him! Her son, Colton, will be using Max to practice archery on horseback and moving cows with his Grandpa!
Breed: Quarter Horse Born: 2003 Sex: Gelding Donated by: Don Preston c/o Ken Waterston Max is a retired western pleasure horse. He is super sweet and extremely calm. Our Youth At-Risk participants love to work with him due to his kind nature. Max is well trained and can stop on a dime! |
Retired September 2020 - thank you to Shirley Kimery, who originally donated Cassie to our program, for providing her forever retirement home.
Birthday: November 11, 1997 Breed: Paint Color: Flee Bitten Grey Gender: Mare Fun Facts: 1) Before coming to KTRA, Cassie competed in Hunter/Jumper 2) Cassie’s favorite game to play is “hard to catch” in her paddock |
Retired Spring of 2020 - thank you to Bill Anderson for providing a lovely retirement home for Sunny in Pritchard, BC. Sunny will be keeping Bill's mare company and providing Bill's partner with a horse to use on the occasional trail ride.
Birthday: Sunny was born in the year 1998 Breed: Paint Color: Bald Face Sorrel with White Stockings Gender: Gelding Fun Facts: 1) Before Sunny came to KTRA he was used as a dressage horse 2) Sunny is our main horse for riders in wheelchair! |
Congratulations to Zoey on her first horse! Sandy is going to love having a little girl to dote on her.
Birthday: Sandy was born in the year 2008 Breed: Quarter Horse/Appendix Color: Sorrel Gender: Mare Fun Facts: 1) Sandy loves kids Before Sandy came to KTRA she was ridden by a 5yr old girl! 2) Sandy came to KTRA with a superficial scar on her nose – although it does not look pleasant, the scar does not hurt Sandy at all! |