Xenophon Collaborates With Giant Steps

The equine assisted therapy community is not a very big one.  Centers are few and far between, scattered around the United States.  Thus, we tend to be a very tight industry, helping each other where possible.  Recently, Xenophon had the opportunity to collaborate with one of our neighboring centers, Giant Steps Therapeutic Riding Center, located in Petaluma, California.    One of our volunteers is training to be an instructor at Xenophon.  The certification process through PATH International, our governing body, is very involved.  Instructors need to teach a minimum of 25 hours of group lessons.  Since all of Xenophon’s clients are taught one-on-one, we cannot offer group lesson hours.  Our student instructor was able to go over to Giant Steps to teach lessons with multiple riders.  In exchange, a group of instructors came to Xenophon for a long-lining clinic.  Giant Steps is interested in starting a Hippotherapy program and was looking for instruction on how to choose and train a horse to long line for Hippotherapy.  A fun afternoon was spent at our center, learning the process for starting a horse for driving and long lining.   It was a winning combination for both centers, and both look forward to other opportunities to share knowledge and resources.