Dear Parents,
My name is Summer Hunting and I am a junior at Sutton Memorial High School. I take a course known as Innovations and in this course we are doing a long term project that goes from now until the middle of May (near the end of the school year). The assignment is to pick any topic that we are interested in and study it and somehow make a project out of it. My project is how horses are used as a therapy medium for kids with special needs. I own several horses and keep them at Sunset Stables in Whitinsville, MA and I would like to utilize them and any children interested in this project. Essentially my goal is to create a program where kids can form bond with these horses and be exposed to this new type of environment. This is a completely free of charge program as it is simply a high school research project. I will have you know that while the horses used are not certified therapy animals, they do have a great reputation with children. All of the horses are guaranteed to be kid-friendly. So far we have 5 horses but as time goes on we may gather a few more. We have 3 riding horses and two horses used for grooming and simply leading around and playing with. Kids can take their pick at who they would like. The farm has both an indoor and an outdoor arena, on rainy days and during the winter we will be inside but if it is nice enough we will have outdoor sessions if the kids would like that. I do ask that children wear either sneakers or more preferably a work boot or cowboy boot of some sort just so they have proper barn footwear. We do have helmets that the kids who are riding may borrow if necessary so you do not need to bring one with you. At the end of sessions I will give you a log that just asks a few simple questions and then as sessions are going on I hope to meet with parents as well to have a face to face discussion. We will have multiple people helping with this program, and I have done extensive research on how these types of programs are run based on how other barns run their programs.
I hope to see everyone as much as possible. Thank you so much for your interest.
Gratefully yours,
Summer Hunting
Safety Protocol
Ensuring Enjoyable Experiences
To ensure safety in our kids and provide and great experience in every session, riding horses will not take place unless we have a licensed trainer or the barn manager present. We also have a few volunteers who have experience with Special Needs kids who are very willing to help out. Our number one priority is the safety of our kids and equine partners, thus the reasoning behind running the riding portion of programs wait until the trainer or barn manager are supervising.