Special Equestrians Inc.

“The 990 is reviewed by the board prior to filing it electronically”

“No officer's are paid at the point in time.”

“Governing documents are made available upon request.”

“Special event revenue was 216,144, which includes contributions of 204,142 which is included as fundraising income on line 1 net income from special events was 186,584”

“Skill to offer the people on our waiting list. In 2017, we began the addition of a tack room for our therapeutic driving program. The efforts were brought to a temporary halt by hurricane irma when part of the carriage barn roof was destroyed. We hope to have this repaired in early 2018. Special equestrians began working together with chris cook of b-c foundation station in reddick, florida in 2016. Chris is a horse development specialist whose mission is to help therapeutic riding centers use effective training methods for their therapeutic riding horses. He is presently embarking on a study with university of florida to develop a curriculum in therapeutic riding horse training for path, intl. And other organizations. We have started a series of workshops with him to better train our horses and volunteers for their mission of serving people with disabilities. We continued to work with chris in 2017. These workshops have helped our horses to become happier in their jobs and our horse leader volunteers have become more skilled. This training ultimately helps the participants in the classes. Private lessons have increased and are given to a limited number of riders with disabilities. We have added semi-private lessons as well. Some private and semi-private lessons were given during the month of august when the regular classes are not offered. Special equestrians has added an additional paid path, intl. Certified therapeutic riding instructor to our staff. She began teaching at the beginning of the spring of 2017. Our participants who are interested have been given more opportunities to do groundwork and horse care with the horses they are riding. This involvement has given them a more well-rounded equine assisted experience. Riders who cannot ride for medical or other reasons have been given new opportunities to groom our horses and participate in unmounted activities such as leading horses and horse care. Our outreach program has allowed us to not only get the word out about our program, but it has become a teaching tool as well. During an outreach visit, the participants learn about horses, their food, riding equipment and grooming equipment, in addition to hearing a short talk about our therapeutic riding program. We also let them pet the two horses, brush the horses and, in some places, read to the horses. We have continued to add new agencies and schools to our outreach efforts. As of december 2017, we have enriched the lives of a total of 1145 children and adults with our outreach program, which began in march of 2012. This number for 2017 is 299 in 12 visits. Our outreach team of pet partner animal handlers must be evaluated every two years. We have 6 equine/handler teams, at this time. We will be going through our next evaluation in early 2018. During this year, additional volunteer orientations were added to increase our volunteer numbers. In 2017, background checks were continued for new volunteers. This process was instituted in 2015 and has been a very successful addition to our volunteer orientation and requirements. One of our volunteers who is an occupational therapist, completed the process of becoming a certified therapist in hippotherapy. The term hippotherapy refers to how occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology professionals use evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning in the purposeful manipulation of equine movement to engage sensory, neuromotor, and cognitive systems to achieve functional outcomes in a client. We have purchased equipment and evaluation tools for these ot services and we are building a therapy evaluation room at our center. We hope to have our first hippotherapy clients soon. The name of our therapist's service is strides occupational therapy services. Information can be found at: http://www.stridesot.com. In 2017, two of our volunteers became certified as equine specialists in mental health and learning. The esmhl can serve many functions at a therapeuti”

“ROUNDING -7”