Location: Ottawa, Ohio, United States
Challenged Champions Equestrian Center, Inc. is a nonprofit equine-assisted services organization established in 1997 in Ottawa, Ohio, in Putnam County in northwestern Ohio.
The center is a PATH International Premier Accredited Center that has grown from serving 25 participants in borrowed facilities to nearly 200 students per year — with horses giving over 2,500 rides annually — at its permanent home at the Rising River Quarter Horses facility on Road 6.
In addition to therapeutic riding and equine-assisted activities, Challenged Champions operates an onsite outpatient physical, occupational, and speech therapy clinic, making it one of the more clinically integrated therapeutic riding programs in the region.
About This Program
Challenged Champions was built on the conviction that all persons in its service area with mental, physical, and emotional challenges deserve access to the extraordinary benefits of therapeutic riding. The center’s values are explicit: safety, compassion, respect, dignity, accessibility, high-quality professionalism, and a consistent focus on outcomes and enriching lives.
The equine-assisted activities and therapies program encompasses therapeutic riding, mounted and unmounted ground activities, grooming and tacking, and equine facilitated experiential learning. Sessions run in seven to ten-week blocks with one-hour weekly lessons. Group lessons are limited to four riders per class, ensuring that each instructor can meaningfully address each participant’s individual needs within the group format.
The onsite outpatient clinic for physical, occupational, and speech therapy represents a genuinely unusual integration — clinical rehabilitation services delivered on the same property as the therapeutic riding program. This co-located model allows for meaningful coordination between equine-assisted activities and conventional therapy goals, and gives families access to multiple service types in a single location.
The Horses for Veterans program is offered completely free of charge to all veterans and active duty service personnel, reflecting a deliberate organizational commitment to this population. The center also offers a broad range of special programs for community groups including Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, county school systems, senior citizens, service groups, county probation youth, and 4-H.
The center is also a United Way agency and holds a Candid transparency profile.
Services Offered
- Therapeutic horseback riding (seven to ten-week sessions)
- Equine-facilitated experiential learning
- Grooming and tacking instruction
- Groundwork
- Recreational riding
- Physical therapy (outpatient clinic, onsite)
- Occupational therapy (outpatient clinic, onsite)
- Speech therapy (outpatient clinic, onsite)
- Horses for Veterans program (free of charge)
- 4-H programming
- Summer and day camps
- Special programs (schools, scouting, senior citizens, probation youth, service groups)
- Volunteer program
Who They Serve
Challenged Champions Equestrian Center may be a good fit for:
- Children and adults with mental, physical, or emotional challenges
- Individuals with autism spectrum disorder
- Individuals with ADD or other hyperactivity disorders
- Individuals with cerebral palsy
- Individuals with Down syndrome
- Individuals with developmental delays or disabilities
- Individuals with intellectual disabilities
- Individuals with learning disabilities
- Individuals with multiple sclerosis or muscular dystrophy
- Individuals with head trauma or brain injury
- Individuals with hearing or speech impairment
- Individuals with PTSD
- Stroke survivors
- Individuals facing terminal illness
- Individuals who have experienced violence, abuse, or trauma
- At-risk youth
- Amputees
- Veterans and active duty service personnel (free)
- Community groups and school programs throughout Putnam County and northwestern Ohio
Facility and Setting
Challenged Champions Equestrian Center is located at 11913 Road 6 in Ottawa, Ohio, in Putnam County. The facility is home to the Rising River Quarter Horses property, which became the center’s permanent base in 1999 and provided the stability needed to expand services and pursue Premier accreditation. The center operates Monday through Wednesday from 9 AM to 8 PM and Thursday through Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM, closed on weekends.
- Ottawa, Ohio location (Putnam County, northwestern Ohio)
- 11913 Road 6, Ottawa, OH 45875
- Hosted at Rising River Quarter Horses
- PATH International Premier Accredited Center
- United Way agency
- 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable corporation
- Onsite outpatient PT, OT, and speech therapy clinic
What Makes Them Unique
The combination of a PATH Premier Accredited therapeutic riding program with an onsite outpatient physical, occupational, and speech therapy clinic is uncommon in the therapeutic riding world. Having licensed therapists and certified therapeutic riding instructors working under one roof — with shared clients and complementary goals — creates a genuinely integrated service environment that most programs cannot offer.
The center’s community reach is also notable. From county school systems and probation youth programs to scouting organizations and senior citizens, Challenged Champions has deliberately built relationships across the full spectrum of community service organizations in Putnam County. That breadth reflects an organization that sees therapeutic riding not as a narrow specialty service but as something with genuine value for many different populations across the lifespan.