Inspiration Ranch Adds Speech Therapy to Therapeutic Riding Program

MAGNOLIA, TX -- As Inspiration Ranch pursues significant growth in 2022, it also adds a vital new service for its special needs clients — speech therapy — through equine-assisted services industry speaker and Speech Pathologist Keith O’Connor.

“We have seen our horses bring first words from clients many times over the past 14 years,” says Inspiration Ranch President and CEO MG Tindall, “now we are offering clients the chance to build long-term speech and communication skills by partnering them with Keith.”

Therapeutic riding stimulates the part of the brain needed for speech and learning. When combined with speech therapy, it helps therapeutic riding clients improve memory, receptive and expressive language skills, learn to better articulate words and become more fluent when speaking through activities on horseback designed to improve cognitive communication.

At Inspiration Ranch, this means O’Connor partners with Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructors (Instructors) for highly customized sessions. The Instructor is responsible for the client’s physical, sensory, emotional and cognitive goals. O’Connor serves as a sidewalker for therapeutic riding sessions, helping stabilize the client in the saddle, and as a Speech Pathologist, responsible for the client’s speech and communication goals. Together, the Instructor and O’Connor make weekly lesson plans so that the client reaches all of their physical, sensory, emotional and communication goals.

“When I began volunteering with therapeutic riding eleven years ago I likened the results to magic,' says O’Connor, “But of course, the magic was the science of structured therapeutic goals targeting sensory input supported by the movement of the horse. A perfect environment for a Speech Pathologist!”

O’Connor is right. The therapeutic riding arena is the perfect partner for speech therapy.

O’Connor has a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech Language Pathology and a Master of Arts in Communication Disorders. He began working as a Speech Pathologist for Cy Fair and Katy ISDs in 2001; he recently retired from Katy ISD and still serves Cy Fair ISD. He began volunteering for therapeutic riding organizations in 2010 and quickly became a respected voice in the equine-assisted services industry. He has presented at multiple Professional Association of Therapeutic Riding International (PATH, Intl.) Conferences and PATH, Intl. Accredited Centers for Instructors, parents and caregivers about teaching strategies for riders with Autism, communication and behavior strategies for special needs individuals and applied behavior analysis.

Anyone interested in speech therapy at Inspiration Ranch should email intake@inspirationranch.org.