Location: New York City, New York, United States
GallopNYC is a nonprofit therapeutic horsemanship program serving children and adults across New York City. The organization uses horse-centered programs to help riders build strength, balance, communication, confidence, and independence in a setting that feels supportive, inclusive, and deeply connected to the city it serves. Founded in 2005, GallopNYC has grown into New York City’s largest therapeutic equine-assisted nonprofit and serves more than 450 people each week.
This is not a single-site lesson barn with one narrow service model. GallopNYC operates across multiple city locations and offers a broader therapeutic horsemanship approach that includes riding, hippotherapy, unmounted programs, and specialized offerings for veterans, seniors, and youth. That wider structure gives the program a strong community feel while still keeping the horse-and-rider relationship at the center of the experience.
About This Program
GallopNYC focuses on therapeutic horsemanship for riders with developmental, emotional, social, and physical disabilities. Lessons are taught by PATH Intl. Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructors, and the organization also offers hippotherapy through an independent physical therapist trained in Hippotherapy. The overall model is built around helping riders gain practical skills that carry into daily life, from mobility and coordination to communication and self-esteem.
The program also reaches well beyond standard weekly riding lessons. GallopNYC offers specialized options for veterans, a Silver Saddles program for older adults, Pony Club for youth on the autism spectrum, a job skills program, and limited recreational riding that helps support its therapeutic work. That mix makes the center feel especially adaptable for families and participants looking for more than a single-format adaptive riding lesson.
Services Offered
- Therapeutic riding
- Therapeutic horsemanship
- Hippotherapy
- Unmounted therapeutic engagement with horses
- Veterans programs
- Groundwork for veterans
- Silver Saddles for older adults
- Pony Club for youth on the autism spectrum
- Job skills programming
- Recreational riding lessons
Who They Serve
- Children with disabilities
- Adults with disabilities
- Riders with developmental disabilities
- Riders with emotional or social challenges
- Riders with physical disabilities
- Veterans with PTSD
- Seniors
- Youth on the autism spectrum
- Participants who benefit from mounted and unmounted equine-assisted programs
Facility and Setting
GallopNYC operates at several locations across New York City, including Sunrise Stables in Howard Beach, where it offers therapeutic and recreational riding in a large outdoor arena. The organization also runs programming at additional city sites, which gives riders access to horse-centered experiences within an urban setting that still feels calm, grounded, and surprisingly connected to nature.
That citywide model is one of the things that makes GallopNYC distinctive. Rather than requiring families to travel far outside the city for equine-assisted services, the program brings therapeutic horsemanship into New York itself. The result is a program that feels both accessible and unusually place-specific: horses, riders, volunteers, and instructors working together in the middle of one of the world’s largest cities. This final observation is an inference drawn from GallopNYC’s multi-location NYC model.
What Makes Them Unique
GallopNYC stands out because of its scale, its location, and the breadth of its programming. It is described as New York City’s largest therapeutic equine-assisted services provider and the city’s largest therapeutic equine-assisted nonprofit, serving hundreds of riders every week through multiple program types. That gives it a level of reach and organizational depth that is unusual for an urban therapeutic horsemanship program.
It also offers a notably inclusive model. Alongside riders with disabilities, the program serves veterans and seniors, and it includes both mounted and unmounted ways to participate. For families looking for a well-established, professionally run equine-assisted program in New York City itself, GallopNYC offers a rare combination of therapeutic focus, accessibility, and community presence.