LTR Receives a Grant from the LEEPS Foundation!
Thanks to the generosity of the LEEPS Foundation, Loudoun Therapeutic Riding was awarded a grant to aid in the funding of our new program, Pony Tales!
Pony Tales is a program that helps motivate underprivileged children to read through the expansion of our current program in which we take our pony Gnomeo to public libraries in Loudoun County. In our current program, the librarians read picture books about horses. Then, the children learn to greet Gnomeo, groom him, or label his “parts” with sticky notes.
With funding from the LEEPS Foundation, Loudoun Therapeutic Riding will expand this program and take Gnomeo to visit Loudoun HeadStart Centers and other early childhood centers where the children will hear horse stories, then greet Gnomeo and engage with him by giving him a horse handshake, brushing him, and even finger-painting him. Engaging with Gnomeo and books about horses will help the children equate horses with fun
and learn empathy by learning to read Gnomeo’s cues. An additional benefit will be broadening and enriching the children’s experiences beyond the ordinary.
The children will also receive a custom coloring page of our sweet Gnomeo nuzzling a child expressing the true magic of horses!