FTEA - Friends for Therapeutic Equine Activities

Friends for Therapeutic Equine Activities (FTEA) is a not-for-profit organization, which provides quality equine-assisted activities and therapy services for children and adults with physical, cognitive, social, and/or emotional needs. FTEA is a PATH Intl. Premier Accredited Center, indicating that the programs and services follow the highest standards of safety and best practices in the industry.

Volunteers are essential to the success of equine-assisted activities.  Volunteers assist the PATH Intl. Certified Instructors during riding and unmounted sessions and also help care for the FTEA horses. New volunteers are required to attend an initial orientation/training session. Volunteers should be able to walk for 45 minutes comfortably.

FTEA offers three opportunities for individuals with special needs to participate.

• Mounted Horsemanship: An instructor teaches participants to ride to the best of their ability in a supportive, strengths-based environment.
• Unmounted Horsemanship: An instructor teaches participants to care for and work with horses on the ground, engaging in activities such as grooming, communicating with and leading the horse.
• Speech-Language Therapy: A licensed speech-language pathologist works to improve the client's communication or feeding skills using a variety of treatment strategies, including those involving the horse and the horse's movement (hippotherapy).
• Veteran Horsemanship: Mounted and Unmounted Horsemanship lessons are available for Veterans.