Lovelane Special Needs Horseback Riding Program

Lovelane, a pediatric, therapeutic horseback riding program that has a dramatic impact on the physical and cognitive development of children with special needs, was incorporated as a non-profit in 1992. Lovelane is recognized and regularly recommended by the Boston pediatric medical community for therapy for a wide variety of special needs diagnoses. Lovelane provides 4,500 therapeutic sessions in a typical year with the help of 197 volunteers. Lovelane's therapeutic program includes weekly sessions with children from 39 communities throughout the greater Boston area, whose primary diagnoses include cerebral palsy (16%), down syndrome (8%), genetic disorders (20%), autism spectrum disorders (27%), learning and developmental delays (15%), hearing and vision impairments (1%), neurological and seizure disorders (7%) and rare or undiagnosed disabilities (6%). Lovelane is committed to individual sessions for each child so that specific therapies can be analyzed and applied for progressive results. These therapies change and are altered as the children grow and goals change. Our core lesson program serves 100 students weekly, 35 additional children join us in unmounted therapeutic mentoring programs. The unmounted sessions have various goals depending on the age of the students, including: increasing social awareness, building self-esteem and confidence, improving conversational skills: such as turn-talking, topic maintenance, eye-contact, and body language, functional life skills such as: time management, prioritizing tasks and responsibilities, managing and working with a team, and communicating with peers and supervisors. Lovelane also partners with local non-profits who serve the special needs population including The Cotting School and The Perkins School for the Blind and offers summer workshops combing off-horse social pragmatic classes with therapeutic horseback riding sessions.