ESC: Volunteers and Horses Make a Change for Children with Disabilities

Paint and Quarter Horse Foundation Bulgaria provides free equine-assited therapy to children and young people with disabilities; develops methods of natural training of horses; and promotes the qualities of the horse breeds Paint horse and Quarter horse. We are a team of three people passionate about horses and helping others. Svetoslav Radev is the Director, Veronika Sramkova is the Head Instructor, and Mina Raduncheva is the Project Manager and Administrator. We are so dedicated to the cause that we moved to the countryside where we live together with our 14 horses and 6 dogs at an eco-friendly ranch called 4OUR RANCH. It is the place where all of the organization’s projects happen. The ranch is tucked away in the rolling hills of mountain Sredna Gora, just 50 km. from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. To preserve the natural resources we use only renewable energy for our electricity needs. Water in the facilities also comes from our own source. The horses are of the American horse breeds – Paint Horse and Quarter Horse, ancestors of the mustangs, the breed Haflinger and mixed breeds. The ranch raises the horses as close to their natural environment as possible. The horses live on large pastures and graze all day long with an access to a creek. The 14 horses, aged 1 to 25 years, are divided in two herds – stallions and mares. Because of the way they are raised and trained they are very calm and suitable to work with children. At the facilities there are also 4 guard dogs and 2 small dogs, companion for our visitors. Maintaining the ranch and that many horses sometimes is overwhelming but helping even one child makes it all worth. For more than a year now the organization has been carrying out the Program ‘’Free therapeutic riding sessions to children with disabilities’’. The goal is to improve the general health and physiological condition of the children. We achieve it through weekly therapeutic riding sessions for the children where they learn how to ride and do exercises on the back of the horse. Except for working with the children we try to help their parents have a few hours of retreat by offering them the possibility to walk around the ranch and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. To ensure that the therapeutic riding we offer is at professional level two of our team members – Mina and Veronika, passed a two-year certification process with the International Professional Association for Therapeutic Riding. We are now therapeutic riding instructors, certified to work with children and adults with disabilities, as well as training volunteers to help the instructors in the process. In addition, our organization is the only entity certified in Bulgaria by the National Agency for Child Protection to provide therapeutic riding to children with disabilities. The next project our organization will be carrying out is the construction and building of a Therapeutic Riding Centre. The Centre will be used to host children with disabilities and one family member for a few days. The children will benefit from consecutive therapeutic riding sessions, breath the fresh mountain air, and enjoy the company of the horses together with their parents. The project is scheduled to begin in 2020. The other main activity of the organization is training the horses regularly and giving them the treatment they deserve. The team is developing an easy and accessible method for working with a horse without abusing the animal but befriending it. The annual budget of Paint and Quarter Horse Foundation Bulgaria for 2020 is approximately 250 000 EURO. It includes operational and administrative expenses, continuing the Program ‘’Free therapeutic riding sessions to children with disabilities’’, a volunteering program and establishing the Therapeutic Riding Centre.