© Equine Therapy Associates: Volunteers and Apprentices

VOLUNTEERS AND APPRENTICES ARE ALWAYS WELCOME

ETA warmly encourages teens and adults to volunteer individually or in groups. ETA hosts badge workshops for Boy and Girl Scouts, community service volunteer school assignments, and equine assisted education. See more photos of our 12 wonderful Norwood School volunteers on "Our Methods and Facilities" and "Photo Gallery" pages.

Click here for Volunteer Job Descriptions

Volunteer Opportunities

ETA accepts volunteer applications all year around, and schedules at least four free three-hour training sessions for volunteers. Please check our ANNUAL CALENDAR for the next training session. Each volunteer is asked to take NARHA's, PATH Int'l's free on-line training course for Volunteers before attending the

Carol Rae Hansen, 2008, All Rights Reserved

farm session. A take-home booklet is provided upon the completion of the farm session, which can be studied in greater detail at your leisure. A two-session practicum completes the nine-ten hour period of formal instruction, usually during the first two times that the Volunteer comes to the farm to work with individual students. A certification of completion is provided, and each new volunteer has the option of taking ETA's 10-week summer lecture series as well for free. Volunteers are always welcome as side walkers, grooms, stall and tack cleaners, exercise riders, show ring assistants, and ring stewards. We also often need volunteers to work on special projects at the farm, such as painting, assisting at shows, building jumps and equipment, and refurbishing equipment. Our Pre-Driving and Pre-Vaulting programs always need volunteers, as well. Of course, our volunteers always love to work with Special Olympics riders, as well as with our Challenged Rider Show Teams. Community service credit hours are given. If you think that you have the skills, motivation, desire and interest to succeed as an equine volunteer, please apply here online. Thanks!

PATH Instructor Mentoring
ETA warmly welcomes you to consider training to be part of ETA's certified PATH Int'l. Instructor Team! The length of time needed and the terms of the relationship will be determined by your level of expertise and your previous training in riding, horsemanship, disabilities, and teaching ability. The goal of our mentoring program is to help you hone your skills and build your knowledge base so that you can become a certified PATH Int'l. Instructor, and to help you launch your new professional career! Please contact us for more information. Thank you!

Three (3) Apprentice Opportunities
The following may help you achieve the Instructor in Training status required by NARHA, PATH Int'l., in terms of completing the required number of mentoring hours with a NARHA, PATH Int'l., certified instructor.

Three month paid Apprenticeships
We offer three month apprenticeships in therapeutic riding, should that be of interest to you, as well as short courses in the summer that take a week. The apprenticeships pay a stipend to the student, and cover 12 key aspects involved in directing a therapeutic riding program (one each week). Apprentices are expected to read a book a week (we lend eight, but the apprentice is expected to read and buy four, all required by NARHA, PATH Int'l.). Apprentices actively learn stable management, pasture management, first aid for horses, customer relations, equine theory, horse psychology, and so forth. These apprentices actually do the work of a program manager, from stall cleaning, to evaluating a student for lessons, to writing lesson plans, to preparing for a Challenged Rider horse show. If the apprentice succeeds in the program, and if she/he wishes to apply for NARHA's , PATH Int'l.'s instructor certification program, ETA will sponsor that apprentice and assist in the process. Apprentices work a full day, five days a week, for three months, and their stipend depends upon previous experience and training.

The Six Day Short Course
The six day short-course of exposure to therapeutic riding costs $1,000. It is intended for professionals who wish practical experience in conjunction with their application to NARHA, PATH Int'l., for an instructorship, or it augments the therapy background of a professional who does not intend to apply for instructor certification but wishes to learn considerably more about TR before working with a TR program. It is not intended to take the place of a NARHA, PATH Int'l., instructor certification course, but it does offer the 12 formal areas of instruction noted above, but in a much shortened version (two a day). Four books are read before the student comes to ETA, and then 12 lectures and 12 sessions of practical instruction are covered in the six days. This is a one-on-one seminar program offered by Carol Rae Hansen, Ph.D., Director of Equine Therapy Associates. We usually schedule two or three of these a year, one in the summer, and one each in the spring and fall. They usually occur when ETA is not formally in session, so that a minimum of distractions exist that might detract from the intense seminar experience. Some hands-on work with disabled students does occur, through the medium of students that lease our horses/ponies, trips to therapeutic riding horse shows (where the short course apprentice serves as a sidewalker), and through evaluations of potential clients (a two hour experience).

The One Week to One Month Volunteer Option
The third option is a volunteer session organized through a school, when a full exposure to therapeutic riding occurs. Each volunteer grooms and handles at least two horses/ponies a day, rides or otherwise exercises those two horses/ponies, cleans stalls, cleans tack, meets with clients, and learns to be a sidewalker as well. Lesson planning is described, program design is explained, and exposure to all of the elements of a therapy program is sandwiched in between lessons and exercise periods. Community service credit hours are given.

How Do We Apply?
If any of these four options are of interest to you, e-mail the Director and apply by downloading the application materials under the "Registration Forms" button. Download the release of information document (F15-04) [the F number is on the bottom right of the page]; the participants application and health history (F13-04) and just mark N.A. for what does not apply (this is also used for therapy students), the physician's release (F25-04), and the Volunteer/Staff form and health history (F22-04), and circle "staff" or "volunteer" as applicable, as well as the authorization for emergency medical treatment form (F11-04) [circle staff or volunteer here also], as well as the Registration form (Questions and Answers).

If you would like to register for a training course, please click here.
For Dates and times, please click here for the Annual Calendar.

Please feel free to contact us directly if you have any questions after you have reviewed the website.

Many thanks for contacting ETA!

08012018