Therapeutic Equine Program Indoor Riding Arena

The Charlton School is a Residential Treatment Center and Special Education school for emotionally troubled and educationally disadvantaged adolescent girls. The girls are referred to The Charlton School from local County Department of Social Services, as well as from public school districts throughout the eastern part of New York State. The students live and go to school at Charlton for an average of one year while they and their families work on behavioral, emotional, and academic challenges.
The Charlton School is a private, not-for-profit program, licensed and over seen by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services and the New York State Education Department. Its governing body is a Board of Trustees. We are a designated by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) agency.
We are applying for a grant to build an indoor riding rink for our Therapeutic Equine Program. This program is one of our most effective and popular treatment programs at The Charlton School. Very often our most damaged young women open up to the horses, the program and eventually the staff by participating in this fun, yet challenging program.
Besides teaching the social and physical skills necessary to ride safely, the program also gives the girls the opportunity and motivation to take on increasing amounts of responsibilities associated with the care of the horses. These responsibilities are directly related to the privilege of learning to ride. Once the students are successful in this area they are more open to making progress toward accepting more personal responsibility in other areas of their lives. They are also more able to establish and be more open to positive relationships with adults and peers. From this point the girls are often open to emotional growth in other areas, especially in the area of their education and their responsibilities toward their communities.

Names of people that have contributed to the indoor riding arena.
2013 The Wright Family Foundation
2014 The J.M. McDonald Foundation
2014 Robert C. Spencer, Individual