Location: Marsing, Idaho, United States
CARE-ousel Therapeutic Riding is a nonprofit equine-assisted activities program located two miles south of Marsing, Idaho, in Owyhee County.
The center was founded by Kim Cercle-Kent, a hippotherapist originally from Modesto, California, who also operates a sister program there. After moving to Marsing with her husband, Cercle-Kent established CARE-ousel to fill a clear gap in equine-assisted services in rural southwestern Idaho.
The program’s mission is to enrich and enhance the lives of children and adults with special needs through equine-related activities, serving a wide range of physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral challenges in a rural ranch setting.
About This Program
CARE-ousel operates from a deeply personal and community-rooted foundation. Kim Cercle-Kent built the program with family support — her late father, Dr. Richard Cercle, was a longtime supporter of the program, and her late husband Hartzell Kent was described as an avid supporter of its riders. A scholarship in Dr. Cercle’s name has been established for riders who need financial assistance to participate.
The center’s approach centers on the transformative power of the relationship between horse and rider. Program staff and families have described participants making breakthroughs they were told would never happen — children with nonverbal autism learning to communicate, riders with muscular dystrophy gaining upper and lower body strength, and individuals finding confidence and connection that had eluded them in other settings. The program’s community feel is consistently noted by families, who describe the experience as being welcomed into a family rather than enrolled in a service.
Activities include therapeutic and recreational riding, grooming and tacking instruction, groundwork, and summer and day camps. Programs are available for children and adults across a broad diagnostic spectrum, including participants with Alzheimer’s and dementia, terminal illness, PTSD, and trauma histories — reflecting an unusually wide scope of service for a program of this scale.
Services Offered
- Therapeutic and recreational horseback riding
- Grooming and tacking instruction
- Groundwork
- Summer and day camps
- Scholarship program for riders with financial need (Dr. Richard Cercle Memorial Scholarship)
Who They Serve
CARE-ousel Therapeutic Riding may be a good fit for:
- Children and adults with special needs
- Individuals with ADD or other hyperactivity disorders
- Individuals with Alzheimer’s or dementia
- At-risk youth
- Individuals with autism spectrum disorder
- Individuals with cerebral palsy
- Individuals with developmental delays or disabilities
- Individuals with Down syndrome
- Individuals with emotional, behavioral, or mental health challenges
- Individuals with epilepsy or seizure disorders
- Individuals with genetic conditions or disorders
- Individuals with head trauma or brain injury
- Individuals with intellectual disabilities
- Individuals with learning disabilities
- Individuals with multiple sclerosis
- Individuals with muscular dystrophy
- Individuals with PTSD
- Individuals with spina bifida
- Individuals facing terminal illness
- Individuals who have experienced violence, abuse, or trauma
- Families in Owyhee County and the greater Boise-Nampa region of southwestern Idaho
Facility and Setting
CARE-ousel is located at 8803 Idaho State Highway 78 in Marsing, Idaho, approximately two miles south of town in Owyhee County. The ranch setting on the Idaho high desert provides a quiet, rural environment for riders and their families. The center is accessible from the Boise-Nampa metropolitan area and serves the broader southwestern Idaho region.
- Marsing, Idaho location (Owyhee County, southwestern Idaho)
- 8803 ID-78, Marsing, ID
- Rural ranch setting, 2 miles south of Marsing
- Nonprofit organization
What Makes Them Unique
CARE-ousel serves one of the more geographically isolated rural communities among therapeutic riding centers in Idaho. Owyhee County is a vast, sparsely populated high desert county, and the presence of a therapeutic riding program there reflects Kim Cercle-Kent’s personal commitment to bringing equine-assisted services to a region that would otherwise lack them entirely.
The program’s breadth of populations served is also notable — including Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, individuals with terminal illness, and trauma survivors alongside the more typical pediatric and developmental disability populations. That scope reflects a philosophy of radical inclusion: that horses can offer something meaningful to virtually anyone who is suffering or struggling, regardless of diagnosis or age.
For families in Owyhee County and the Marsing area of southwestern Idaho, CARE-ousel is the defining local resource for equine-assisted services.