Company Profile
Company Overview
Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center's mission is to improve the bodies, minds, and spirits of children and adults with disabilities through equine-assisted therapy, and to be an inspiration and educational resource to the therapeutic riding profession, both regionally and nationally.
Little Bit is one of the top five largest therapeutic riding centers in the country, currently serving 231 riders a week with the help of over 350 volunteers. Little Bit is the only full-time, year round therapeutic riding center serving the greater Seattle area, and are a Premier Accredited Center (as certified by the therapeutic riding industry's governing body, PATH Intl.)
Specialties
Therapeutic horsemanship, Hippotherapy, Adaptive Riding, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy
Company History
In 1976 Margaret Dunlap teamed up with riding instructor Debra Powell Adams at Woodinville Riding Club. Realizing that riding had inhibited the progress of Margaret's multiple sclerosis, she and Debra decided to start a therapeutic horseback riding program. Margaret began presenting their idea to numerous community groups. Initially known as Little Bit Special Riders, the program has grown from five students, one instructor and one horse, operating in a rented stable, to one of the largest full-time, therapeutic horseback riding programs in the United States. Nearly 250 riders a week from throughout the Puget Sound area receive Hippotherapy or Therapeutic Horseback riding instruction through Little Bit's six-days-a-week program
Therapeutic riding programs for people with disabilities were first established in Western Europe in the early 1950s and in North America in the late 1960s. Doctors, therapists and researchers were so impressed with the physical results of this therapy that many hospitals in Western Europe now have adjoining facilities for hippotherapy - utilization of the horse in therapy. The extraordinary growth of the number of therapeutic riding programs in the United States alone (currently more than 800 programs) gives evidence of the value and demand for such programs.
Little Bit has evolved from an organization operated entirely by volunteers to a highly professional program that is increasingly perceived as a model for other programs in its field. Little Bit was the first nationally accredited program (accredited by PATH) of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, is currently one of only three Premiere Accredited Centers in Washington State and is the largest, full-time therapeutic riding program in the Northwest.
Benefits
Life Insurance
403B Plan
11 Paid Holidays
Employee Assistance Program
Horse Board
AFLAC