Recent Little Bit Adventure!

I recently was at one of my most favorite places: the Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center. I just love when I’m able to go there to photograph and support them. It’s such a blessing and an honor to be a part of an organization that is such a positive force in the community and makes so many people’s lives a better place.

The event I was most recently there for was for the Rider Showcase. This is an event that mostly serves to have student riders demonstrate the types of therapy that Little Bit provides. It is also an opportunity for Little Bit to provide answers to questions people might have about the program and their current facility, as well as their new facility that is opening in April 2013.

It was a very fun event and a great opportunity to generate support for the Center. Here are some photos of the kids, parents, family members, staff, and horses of Little Bit!

Weekend at Little Bit

Holy BUCKETS I’m behind on my blog! This whole work thing (I’m a Data Manager at a science non-profit) is really getting in the way of my blogging!! The nerve! 🙂

Anyway, I digress…. I have many other posts in mind that will be coming up, but for this one, I want to talk about an event I went to this past weekend. The facility is called the Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center and they use horses to provide therapy to children and adults with disabilities. On Saturday, they had a Horse Show, and on Sunday, a Dressage Show. These are a chance for all the students to show off what they’ve learned and how hard they have worked over the past year.

Little Bit has 2 main areas of focus: adaptive riding and hippotherapy. Adaptive riding focuses on improving physical strength, balance, hand-eye coordination, etc.. Hippotherapy (apparently “hippo” is Greek for horse!) is more intensive and involves a physical or other type of certified therapist. I was told by one of the volunteers that this Center is based on the fact that the movement of a horse is very similar to human movement, and so this is used as a type of treatment strategy. That is just so interesting and amazing to me. Very cool.

The whole weekend was a great experience and lots of fun! There were many aspects I thoroughly enjoyed. Most importantly, the most fun to see were the riders! From young to old, they were out there showing off their learned techniques and doing it with a big grin on their face!  You can tell they have been working hard and it showed! What a great group of students.

Secondly, the staff and volunteers there were wonderful as well. All those that I met were very nice and extremely welcoming. They run a wonderful program and I hope that this facility is around for many, many years to come.

And last but not least, the horses. All so sweet and mellow and just clomp clomp clomping around having a grand old time! Beautiful animals.

There were many great moments for me, but one of my favorites was when I saw a young rider  (whose picture is in the gallery below) who was just standing by the paddock and her mom was working on fixing her hair under her riding helmet. I was trying to casually take other pictures nearby because I didn’t want to upset her or make her uncomfortable in any way, but as soon as she saw the camera in her direction, she just hit this fantastic smile! It’s just one of those truly innocent and happy moments and one that I’ll not soon forget.

Enjoy the pictures, and if you have time, check out Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center: www.littlebit.org.