Enhancing the lives and well-being of people in our community
Sycamore Lane Therapeutic Riding Center's mission is to provide and promote therapeutic riding and recreation in a safe, professional, nurturing environment to the children and adults of the Portland metropolitan area. Enhancing the lives and well-being of people in our community including individuals with mental and physical disabilities.
Our new facility opens July 1st, 2009. Please call 503.593.7084 to make a donation or to volunteer.
Sycamore Lane Therapeutic Riding Center was founded in 2008 by Dr. Suzanne Cleland-Zamudio, a physician/surgeon in the Portland area who has served the needs of impaired children and adults in this community for over a decade. Dr. Cleland-Zamudio grew up in Oregon City on Sycamore Lane Welsh Pony Farm, raising and training Welsh and Arabian cross ponies. As a child growing up, she was aware of the therapeutic effect of animals on human emotion and disability. While seeking information about therapeutic riding for her patient’s as well as an impaired family member, it became apparent that the resources in the state of Oregon were limited. Many of the non-profit therapy barns were run down, non-ADA compliant and had poor business practices and animals that were unsafe or not properly cared for. Some of the therapy barns had long waiting lists, frequent cancellations, complicated volunteer applications, or were so sub-specialized that they only took patients of a specific disease state or impairment.
Being a small business owner, physician and member of this community for much of my life, it was clear that there was a need to be served. With the assistance of friends’ family and gracious volunteers, we have founded Sycamore Lane Therapeutic Riding Center. We are building a safe, state of the art, wheelchair/ADA compliant facility to serve the therapeutic riding needs of all members of our community that would like to participate, especially those with physical, mental and emotional impairments. We have NAHRA trained and certified instructors to provide the therapeutic riding and plan to incorporate the more intensive therapy directed Hippotherapy into our program by fall, 2009.
Peer review research indicates that equine therapy is an effective method of therapy, especially when tailored to enhance a specific riders needs, whether it be for strength, balance, sensory integration or spatial awareness. Therapeutic riding is supervised, dynamic, recreational riding for children and adults with a variety of physical, mental and emotional disabilities. Lesson plans are directed towards the needs of the individual rider to enhance outcome physically, emotionally and cognitively. Hippotherapy is different in that it is specifically a Medical therapy provided under a physician’s prescription.
Hippotherapy is a physical, occupational or speech therapy treatment strategy that utilizes the multidimensional movement of a horse. This strategy is used as part of an integral treatment program, with the ultimate goal of achieving measurable, functional outcomes. It is different that regular horseback riding and does not teach those skills. Why the use of a horse is special is because the gait of a horse is similar to the human gait and can thus facilitate corresponding movement patterns in the human pelvis. A horse’s walk provides valuable sensory input that is rhythmic, variable and repetitive. This dynamic movement, coupled with the traditional physical or occupational therapy techniques, can provide improved functional outcomes, emotionally and physically.
These types of therapy improves muscle tone, strength, coordination, balance responses, postural dysfunction and sensorimotor problems while providing the warmth, grace and healing effect of horses and ponies.
Conditions such as:
And a host of other physical and mental health issues significantly benefit from this type of therapy.
Sycamore Lane Therapeutic Riding Center is a member of the North American Handicapped Rider Association (NAHRA) and will be seeking certification as a center in 2009. We are seeking funding to complete the facility, and provide the necessary therapies for 40-60 patients per week.
We ask for your consideration as donations are greatly needed to get the facility started.
