Otra Mas Rehabilitates Retired Horses for Therapeutic Uses

The Capistrano Dispatch has published an article about Otra Mas — an organization dedicated to rehabilitating retired horses for therapy work.

Thanks to Otra Mas, a new volunteer organization in San Juan Capistrano, aging performance horses in need of rehabilitation—like 24-year-old Demi—are being given a new lease on life and a renewed purpose as therapy horses for adults and children in equine-assisted psychotherapy, or EAP.  In Spanish, Otra Mas means “another one” or “one more.” Kathy Holman, the organization’s president and owner of Ortega Equestrian Center, has always welcomed horses that others have deemed “broken,” either because they are too difficult to work with or have passed their physical prime.

Read the whole article here.

We previously wrote about the importance of horses to Orange County and the need for more public equestrian centers in this article.  One part of that need is to find a place, and a meaningful purpose, for retired horses.  Equine-assisted-therapy, whether psychological therapy or physical therapy, is a win-win for both the horse and the patient.  That’s one reason why we are such big supporters of the J.F. Shea Therapeutic Riding Center, and we applaud Otra Mas and the Ortega Equestrian Center for pursuing this important initiative.