PRANCE owner and founder Kathleen Pryde with 29 year old Kirby August 30.

Hub Staff

PRANCE, Pegasus Riding Association Nurturing Challenged Equestrians is kicking up its hooves to celebrate 25 years of restorative practise and therapeutic riding and is inviting the community to join in the celebration September 16 from 4 to 8 p.m.

Owner and founder Kathleen Pryde is calling the anniversary celebration a “family day” which will include tours, hay rides, demo rides and a dinner (to reserve a spot e-mail lprance25@gmail.com).

Pryde, a social worker by trade, said that over the years she had the opportunity to really personally experience the power of the relationships with nature and horses for healing.

“It’s something that if you have people who have a positive experience or have an experience with the horses that is meaningful for them, then the commitment is deep-end and people volunteer and continue to be involved with horses in some capacity,” said Pryde August 30, adding, “I’m finding now that the mental health component... we’re doing very, very powerful work. I've had real special moments over the years with young people and seniors too.”

Pryde said that 25 years ago she didn’t know if PRANCE would become the lasting success that it is today and recalled there being a stigma around mental health. “I never talked about the fact that we were doing what I consider preventive or supportive mental health programming. We just called it therapeutic riding but we were doing a lot more than that all along... now we’ve more formalized that program.” Pryde went on to say that there is specific training available now for equine facilitated wellness, and Prance has its own mental health practitioner.

However, Pryde did admit that horses are the best therapists as they’re honest with their feedback with riders having said the exchange can be quite profound.

Over the years PRANCE has housed many equine therapists, which she has come to love while mourning the loss of others. Currently, Pryde says, she has a special spot for Kirby who is in his 30th year. “I've been blessed with quite a few. Kirby, he came to me about year two or three of the program and he's almost in his 30s, very delicate, I'm having a hard hard time of letting go of Kirby,” she said, adding that Bailey and Beanie have worked very hard over the years.

PRANCE uses a variety of mature schooled horses that fit a variety of needs, heights and sizes. “When you have horses like that - they've had children do anything you can imagine - and they're incredible.”

The 25th anniversary evening is open to anyone in the community, whether they’ve been a past rider, volunteered at the annual craft show or just want to see what the facility is like.

PRANCE has included a new fall program called Mane Sense, a five week session based on horse guided self reflection starting Monday, September 18. For more information contact the office at 519-832-2522 or e-mail prance@bmts.com.

Kathleen Pryde received special attention from Goose, a Mare staying at PRANCE.

PRANCE is located on Highway 21, just north of Port Elgin.