Location: Worton, Maryland, United States
Bridges at Worthmore is a nonprofit equine therapy center located at Worthmore Equestrian Center in Worton, Maryland, in Kent County on the Eastern Shore.
Founded in 2004, Bridges serves as the therapeutic arm of Worthmore Equestrian Center, offering professional equine-assisted services to individuals, couples, families, groups, and organizations throughout the mid-Atlantic region.
The center holds dual certification through PATH International and EAGALA, the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association, and is particularly known for its mental health programming, its work with military veterans, and its services for at-risk youth and adults affected by incarceration.
About This Program
Bridges at Worthmore approaches equine therapy as something broader than traditional therapeutic riding. While adaptive riding is offered, the center is equally focused on equine-assisted psychotherapy and learning — clinical and educational experiences conducted entirely on the ground, where the horse’s responses to human behavior become the medium for insight, growth, and change. The team works across the full spectrum of behavioral and mental health concerns, with particular expertise in anxiety, depression, trauma-related disorders, and addiction.
The adaptive riding program encompasses mounted and ground activities, grooming, stable management, shows, and parades — any structured equine-assisted activity designed to support physical, emotional, and mental well-being. Each participant’s program is customized following an individualized assessment and the development of a goal-oriented plan.
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) at Bridges is an experiential form of therapy in which licensed mental health professionals work alongside horses in session. Because horses are highly sensitive to and reflective of human emotional states, they provide moment-to-moment feedback that becomes a powerful vehicle for exploring thoughts, feelings, and patterns of behavior. This approach is available for individuals, couples, and families and is particularly effective for those who have found traditional talk-based therapy limited in its reach.
Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) draws on the same horse-centered experiential approach but is oriented toward personal development, communication, leadership, and teamwork rather than clinical mental health goals. The program offers leadership development and team-building experiences for groups and corporations of all sizes, making Bridges unusual among therapeutic riding centers in its capacity to serve organizational clients as well as individuals.
Bridges has a long history of serving at-risk youth, adults and families impacted by incarceration, and military veterans. Veterans are served at no cost through a Maryland VA partnership, and Bridges has taken particular pride in being able to reach veterans who may have resisted traditional treatment but are willing to engage when horses are involved.
Services Offered
- Adaptive riding (mounted and ground activities, grooming, stable management)
- Equine-assisted psychotherapy (individuals, couples, families)
- Equine-assisted learning
- Leadership development and team-building programs (groups and corporations)
- Veteran services (free through Maryland VA partnership)
- Clinical referral program for practitioners
- Volunteer program
Who They Serve
Bridges at Worthmore may be a good fit for:
- Children and adults with learning, developmental, or emotional challenges
- Individuals with anxiety or depression
- Individuals with trauma-related disorders or PTSD
- Individuals in recovery from addiction
- Military veterans and their families
- At-risk youth
- Adults and families affected by incarceration
- Couples seeking to improve communication and relationship dynamics
- Individuals with physical disabilities seeking adaptive riding
- Organizations and corporations seeking leadership and team-building experiences
- Families seeking support through difficult life transitions
Facility and Setting
Bridges at Worthmore operates at Worthmore Equestrian Center at 11570 Still Pond Road in Worton, Maryland, in Kent County on the Eastern Shore. Worthmore is a full-service equestrian facility that also houses Kent Association of Riding Therapy (KART) and is certified as a Horse Discovery Center by the Maryland Horse Industry Board. The Eastern Shore setting provides a rural, peaceful environment that is itself part of the therapeutic experience. The program operates year-round with a volunteer team that supports horse care, facility management, and lesson assistance.
- Worton, Maryland location (Kent County, Eastern Shore)
- 11570 Still Pond Road, Worton, MD 21678
- Located at Worthmore Equestrian Center
- PATH International certified
- EAGALA certified
- 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
- Year-round programming with volunteer support
- Maryland VA provider for veteran services (free of charge)
What Makes Them Unique
Bridges at Worthmore combines two distinct and complementary certification frameworks — PATH for equine-assisted activities and therapeutic riding, and EAGALA for ground-based psychotherapy and learning — giving it a broader clinical range than programs that operate under only one model. The EAGALA approach, which is entirely unmounted and focuses on the horse’s natural behavioral responses as a therapeutic tool, opens the program to clients who may not be able to ride or who need a purely relational intervention rather than a physical one.
The center’s position within a full-service equestrian center rather than a standalone therapy facility also creates an unusually integrated environment where horses are genuinely at the center of a living community.
For families in Kent County and the wider Eastern Shore region of Maryland who are looking for a professionally credentialed equine therapy program with the flexibility to address both physical and mental health needs across the lifespan, Bridges at Worthmore offers one of the most comprehensive options in the region.