Volunteer With CTRC!

Are you interested in volunteering for the premier riding center in Colorado but unsure of how to get involved? Not to worry! The Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center, which has been in operations for over 30 years, is more than happy to welcome new volunteers with a passion for helping children and adults overcome obstacles, and its committed staff make volunteering easy and rewarding.

Currently the Riding Center sees about 260 volunteers a week, 1000 volunteers a year, and an impressive commitment of over 40,000 volunteer hours a year. There are many volunteer opportunities at CTRC. Today, we will cover the top two opportunities that volunteers get involved in. The firstis a Lesson Volunteer.. A lesson volunteer is active as either a side walker, as the name suggests, walks next to and aids is supporting the rider or a horse leader, again as the name suggests, leads and is responsible for the horse. No experience is necessary only a "can do" attitude as CTRC provides all the training to make you a confident and skilled lesson volunteer. All new volunteers take an initial 3 hour New Volunteer Orientation You do need to be 16 years old or 14 and have a lot of previous horse experience. Those wishing to be horse leaders attend an additional Horse Handling Clinic. The second is to become a member of one or more of CTRC's volunteer "teams".team. Generally seasoned and committed volunteers who are looking for additional applications or development of their skills become a part of the Schooling Team, Training Team or Barn Team. . The Schooling Team assists in keeping CTRC's therapy heard in excellent working condition. The training team works with new volunteers through orientation. The Barn Team "adopts" members of our therapy heard to give extra TLC to weekly.

To see a more detailed explanations of the different types of volunteer opportunities, check out the Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center’s volunteer webpage at: http://www.ctrcinc.org/volunteer/opportunities.html



So now you may be asking, how do I get involved? The easiest way to get involved is to send an email to CTRC's Volunteer Coordinator at volunteer@ctrcinc.org or call her at 303.652.9131. The Riding Center also encourages walk-ins to come and talk to someone in the office about how to become involved during regular working hours (9am-5pm M-F and Saturday 9am - 3:00pm when in session). The center is located at 1968 Mineral Road in Longmont. You know you found it when you see the giant “Volunteer Here!” sign. For more directions click on this link to view a map: http://www.ctrcinc.org/contact/contact_map_zoom.html.

At this point you may be thinking to yourself, why should I get involved with the Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center? Aside from being able to work with some amazing and well trained horses, volunteers work with special needs children and adults who look forward to riding every week. The benefits of horse therapy are visible in each session, leaving the volunteers with a great attitude that last beyond the session. Plus, you have the opportunity to be the Volunteer of the Month, and maybe even the Volunteer of the Year!