Our Programs

Rising Stars started as a small program with a Big Dream.  Serving just 18 participants in its "pilot program in 2009; the program is now serving close to 90 participants during our summer session. Our mission is dedicated to providing safe and caring equine assisted therapies to children and adults with special needs, empowering them to "reach beyond the reins of limitation". We strive to do this with as little cost to our participants as possible. We are looking forward to expanding what programs and sessions we offer with the addition of our Indoor Arena and Therapy Building.

Starting Small... Dreaming Big

Rising Stars started as a small program with a Big Dream. Serving just 18 participants in its "pilot program in 2009; the program is now in its 13th season.  Our original mission was to provide hippotherapy and therapeutic riding to those in need in the south central Idaho area in a safe, caring environment at little or no charge to the participant..  In this years since 2009, we've expanded in both quantity and quality of services we provide; now serving about 90 participants weekly during the summer months.  With this growth has come the realization that its still only a drop in a bucket.  Rising Stars can offer much more!  After years of steady support from our community and hard work from our staff and volunteers we were able to purchase our own property in 2017!  We now have 20 acres with a view that we are rebuilding on!  For us this means opportunity to offer veterans programs, equine facilitated psychotherapy, cooperative programs with schools and other human service organizations, and simply to allow our participants to benefit from their trusty equine friends for more than just 6 months of the year.  As of December 2020 we will have completed the building of our indoor arena, and our office/therapy building. With this new addition we will have two therapy rooms, bathrooms with running water, office space, and a viewing room for families in a temperature controlled environment. This will allow us to have programs all year long. We started our first full winter session in January of 2021. We will start construction on our Community Park in Spring 2021, we will provide more information for that as it becomes available. We look forward to our future and the many programs we can provide going forward with this current growth.

 We've come so far because of the generosity of many people.  Now we need this support to continue as we sustain Rising Stars through the current world standings, more growth and help us continue providing Equine Therapy to all those in need.   Please share our story with anybody that might be able to help.  
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Equine Therapy and its benefits have been recognized for many years.  It is a method of increasing the physical, mental, emotional and developmental capabilities for individuals with disabilities, functional limitation or medical issues.  There is a healing interaction between horses, riders and people who help them.  

Benefits Include: 

• Improved Balance and Mobility

• Increased Physical Strength

• Improved Posture and Spinal Alignment

• Increased Flexibility

• Better Circulation/Cardio-vascular Health

• Improved Communication Skills

• Confidence and Self Esteem

• Increased Social Interaction

• More Normalized Walking Gaits

• Improved Quality of Life and great joy!

Hippo-therapy

Hippotherapy is therapy conducted on horseback by a licensed speech, physical, or occupational therapist. It utilizes the same goals set for the patients in the clinic but challenges them further by employing the 3-dimensional movement of the horse. Those that participate have an hour long therapy session where 30 minutes is conducted on the horse, and 30 minutes is off the horse in therapy rooms that we have in our office/therapy building.   Therapists are able to get the participant to do many different things that they may not be willing to do in the office. 

Therapeutic Riding

Therapeutic riding, sometimes called adaptive riding, is conducted either individually or in a small group setting, depending on the needs of the individual.  It is conducted by a PATH Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor and focuses on increasing individual riding skills while gaining a therapeutic benefit such as improved muscle tone and strength, improved hand/eye coordination, balance, improved communication, increased self esteem, and self control.   These two programs overlap in many areas, both optimizing the movement of the horse to teach a number of skills. 

Who can Participate

Right now our demand is large and our resources limited.  We are doing the best we can to provide service to as many people as possible. We are accepting applications for new participants who are then put on our waiting list.  Disabilities commonly treated with equine therapy include, but are not limited to:  Stroke, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Down Syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy, Spina Bifida, Learning or Language Delays, Developmental Delay, Traumatic Brain Injury, Attention Deficit Disorder, Anger Issues, Physical and Mental Abuse, Low Self-Esteem, and Visual or Hearing Impairment. All applicants are required to have a doctors referral.

If you wish to participate as a Hippotherapy patient, you must contact one of the therapists working with us, currently that is through Primary Therapy Source. If you wish to participate in the therapeutic riding program with a PATH Certified Instructor, you can contact the center at the contact information listed below.
We do currently have a waiting list for therapeutic riding that is being worked through as we add more sessions. Please be considerate in knowing that you may not be put on the schedule for the next session. Our Policies and Procedures offers more information on how the wait list works, if you would like to have a copy of this please let us know.

Email: risingstarsriding@hotmail.com
Office:  +1 208-751-0557                            

 Executive Director: +1 208-404-2418