Fair Hill Therapeutic Riding Center

About the Program

In therapeutic riding lessons, which Fair Hill calls therapeutic horsemanship, instructors plan mounted and unmounted activities around each participant's goals. Ground work covers grooming, tacking, leading and horse behavior, and riding takes place both indoors and outdoors. Volunteers support the lessons.

Equine assisted learning is described as a non-therapy service that builds life skills such as confidence, communication and problem-solving. The center says it became a licensed Stable Moments facility in 2023 to serve foster and adopted children and youth who have experienced early trauma. In that mentoring model, each child is matched with one horse and one community mentor for an hour a week.

History

Fair Hill has its roots in Tyler Hill and was incorporated as a nonprofit in 2007 by the family of Art Goldberg, who had multiple sclerosis. His son Ben, a therapeutic riding instructor, introduced him to riding, and after seeing the results the family opened the program to the community, first focusing on adults with MS. In 2020 the founders retired, the farm was sold and COVID-19 closed the program. It later reopened at host farms, and in June 2022 it expanded its service area to Wayne, northern Pike, Susquehanna and Lackawanna counties.

Getting Started

Families review the participant manual, then complete the participant application and policy acknowledgement and return them by mail, email or the website's upload page. Staff review the forms and follow up. A doctor must complete and sign a medical form before the first lesson.

Sally Wasylyk, a retired special education teacher, is board president. Volunteers are welcome, and the center lists volunteer opportunities on its website.

Location

Fair Hill's mailing address is PO Box 396, Waymart, PA 18472. Lessons take place by appointment at Maplewood Farms, a 188-acre boarding and lesson facility in Waymart, and at Wynsum Equestrian Center, a 92-acre facility near the Delaware River in Damascus. The center serves Wayne, northern Pike, Susquehanna and Lackawanna counties.