North Okanagan Therapeutic Riding Association

Due to the generosity of the Community Foundation of the North Okanagan, Fall 2006 saw the introduction of new equipment to the North Okanagan Therapeutic Riding Association’s program. Combined with a donation from Silver Star Rotary, a substantial discount offered by All Season’s Motor Sports and money NOTRA had been setting aside from various fundraisers, the $4500.00 donated by CFNO enabled us to purchase a new Polaris Hawkeye 4 x 4 ATV and Polaris “dumping” utility trailer. This equipment not only improved the efficiency of the “behind the scenes’ work done at the ranch but significantly eased the physical demands borne by our volunteers.

The North Okanagan Therapeutic Riding Association is a non-profit registered charity that has been providing horseback riding lessons as a form of therapy for mentally and physically disabled children and adults in the North Okanagan since 1984. Since 1993 NOTRA has made its home at the Historic O’Keefe Ranch north of Vernon, where we have slowly built our program. In 2006 we maintained a herd of 14 horses and were able to provide riding lessons for a total of 160 clients in our Spring and Fall sessions.

Our program is run entirely through the generosity of volunteers who usually attend for one morning or afternoon per week to saddle and lead horses or act as side-walkers during lessons.

Volunteers who come in the morning or who are still with us at the end of the day are asked to help with chores such as feeding & watering the horses and mucking out the paddocks. Until we were able to purchase the ATV and trailer, all of these chores where done manually with wheelbarrows (or in the case of feeding, physically carrying the flakes of hay and buckets of feed). Many found these chores to be too physically demanding which meant they either greatly reduced the amount of time they were able to donate to NOTRA, or simply had to cease volunteering. It is a rare volunteer who can feed, water, shovel manure and push wheelbarrows, and then walk with horses and riders for several one-hour classes. (We do have a few of these amazing individuals in our program and they are treasured beyond words!)

The easing of the physical demands on our volunteers has translated into more time that they are willing and able to help. In a program that is limited only by the number of volunteers we are able to recruit, seeing a greater interest in volunteering has been very encouraging.

As we look to the future for NOTRA, we are optimistic that we will see a continued increase in our volunteer base which in turn will enable us to better serve our clientele who benefit so greatly from a form of therapy that removes them from a clinical environment and introduces them to a new world of freedom, movement, animals and fun!

The staff, volunteers and especially the riders of NOTRA would like to express our deepest thanks to the Community Foundation of the North Okanagan!