Spotlight On: Therapeutic Riding and Jodie Miller

The Power of Horses

Jodie Miller, a senior at Centenary University, has been an avid equestrian since childhood. Spending a week at the equestrian camp of Clover Valley Farms in Vincentown, NJ, Miller developed a love for horses and the benefits they can provide through equine-assisted services like therapeutic riding.

PATH Intl. is a national membership organization that leads the advancement of professional equine-assisted services, including  therapeutic riding. PATH Intl. creates operational standards for programs, provides education, and offers professional credentialing.

Last year, Miller completed her first PATH Intl. certification to become a Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor (CTRI).

What is therapeutic riding?

The most basic way to describe it is using horses and adaptive riding to help individuals with either social, emotional, cognitive, or physical disabilities. It's teaching them riding skills, but also how to help them through their own personal challenges as well.

For someone who has communication problems, you can use horses and riding to help them through those challenges and have them learn a better way to communicate through the skills that you teach.

What made you interested in pursuing this path?

A few years into my riding career, I started teaching under an apprenticeship of my trainer back at home. She gave me one student who was diagnosed with autism. After teaching her for a few years, I saw how much the horses helped her and how appreciative, not only she was, but her mother as well. Once I was with that student for quite some time, I decided that this is something that I wanted to do.

When looking for a program to get certified in, what made Centenary stand out to you?

I chose Centenary because of the dressage team and the fact that they had a therapeutic riding program. Not one school that I looked at other than Centenary had both of those things. But part of the reason that the therapeutic riding program here stood out to me the most is because you could actually train for your certification through the school without having to be an Equine Assisted Services Major.

When I toured the school, Kayla Thau was my tour guide, and she was part of the therapeutic riding program. She's officially a CTRI and now works at a few different places for therapeutic riding. I talked to her a lot about the program and what it entailed, and it seemed like a great opportunity to get a ton of hands-on experience under the mentorship of Karen Brittle, director of the program, as well as the other instructors-in-training. It seemed like a very involved part of the Equine Center.

When I was originally talking with my tour guide about the program, she seemed so into it, and it just made me want to be into it as well.

Octavia Brown, the founder of Therapeutic Riding at Centenary (TRAC) and, I believe, the 11th member of PATH Intl., created the program. For her to have founded the therapeutic riding program–and to do all the adaptive riding, the special dismounts, the special mounts–made me realize how much the therapeutic riding program at Centenary is credentialed. It's very real and it's a very proper program. We go by the rules. We are PATH Intl. accredited, which is another part of the reason why I liked it. You can have a therapeutic riding center, but it isn’t necessarily  PATH Intl. accredited.

Are there different types of certifications people can get in this career?

There are three different certifications. The CTRI is the Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor. Next is the Advanced Therapeutic Riding Instructor. The highest level is a Master Therapeutic Riding Instructor.

The easiest way to simplify this hierarchy is the higher up you go, more teaching hours and volunteer hours are required. The hands-on portion involves teaching and volunteering, whether it's sidewalking, leading, being a gate person, doing offside, helping out with the mounts, helping out with the dismount.

As you go up the levels into the Advanced Certification, you need more hours of teaching and the ability to demonstrate a higher level of riding and horsemanship. Then, the Master’s Certification involves a few more case studies. You have to teach an able-bodied rider how to ride in addition to performing a series of lessons, in addition to multiple riders with disabilities.

There is also a written exam as well and the written exams also have more specifics to them.

What was the process like to get certified as a CTRI.

I've been volunteering for the TRAC program since my freshman year. Pretty much right when I started school, I started volunteering. But, for the course, there are two lecture-based classes and then you have your hands-on portion.

During the lecture-based classes, you learn a lot about the specific disabilities, the mounting, the dismounting, the adaptive equipment, what they are, what they do, and why you would use them. You also learn a lot about the horses and you're always looking at the way that they're moving; their biomechanics, their conformation, and how it can affect not only the rider, but also the rider's balance. Would this horse be a good fit for this rider? Would this horse be a bad fit for this rider? You also have to look at the height of the horse and the weight of the rider.

You're also learning a lot about the mandatory standards of being a PATH Intl. accredited center and a CTRI. Plus, you are  learning about a ton of precautions and contraindications. That was one of the biggest things that I learned from the hands-on in the lecture-based portion. A lot of specific disabilities have specific parts to them where it may or may not let the individual be able to ride, which is the contraindication part.

The hands-on portion of that is actually being in the ring. You work under a mentor with other instructors-in-training where you have to do a lesson plan every single time. You have to talk about the mounts, the dismounts, the horses you're going to use, what adaptive equipment you're going to use, what volunteers you need. There's always an objective. An example; riders will demonstrate walk, halt, walk transitions three times in each direction with assistance as needed.

You also have the what, hows, and whys of everything. For the walt-halt-walk transition, you're what is a walk-halt-walk transition. Your why is to make sure that the rider can stop the horse and can have control. And, then, your how is sitting deep in the saddle, saying the word whoa, and pull back on the reins.

After the lesson is over, you do lesson notes. You talk about the entire lesson– what went well, what didn't go well, some things that you would change. You also need to kind of have an idea of a plan for the following week to build up and progress on those skills.

And, then, you need to be in the ring under Karen Brittle, the mentor. There's also Tracy Cole, who's also a CTRI and a mentor for the other instructors-in-training. Getting that hands-on experience with not only the horses, but the individuals, especially with all the different individuals that we have in the program is amazing. Their challenges range from cognitive, social, emotional and physical disabilities.

In the long term, what are your goals in therapeutic riding?

I know that I don't want to do this full time. As much as I love it and as rewarding as it is, it can sometimes be very physically and emotionally draining. You're on your feet for a lot of hours of the day and it's not your typical riding lesson. There's a lot more involved to it than a typical riding lesson. 

But for me, I would like to continue being a CTRI, keep that certification up to date and go through more teaching hours, more volunteer hours, and possibly get my advanced certification. I honestly don't think I would ever get my Master Certification just because of the amount of time that it takes and the fact that I don't want to do it full time.

Teaching the riders and being a mentor or mini mentor now; I do like it. I do want to keep doing it just to help keep the amount of CTRIs growing, because it really is a low number.

What makes a good therapeutic riding horse?

The biggest thing is temperament; 100% temperament. You do not want a horse that is hot-to-go or spooky. When you think of horses in a therapeutic riding program, you're thinking of horses like our Sadie and Petey that are just calm, cool, collected, pretty much all the time.

The other thing that you always want to look at is conformation. You want to look at are they cow hocked? Are they in even thirds? And you also want to look at their height and their weight. 

In therapeutic riding, we try our best not to get super tall horses. If we have individuals with physical disabilities, it can be really hard on the volunteers, the leaders, the instructors-in-training. It can be really hard on the horses, too, because of the specific mounts and dismounts. Weight wise, you do want to look at the horse's weight because if the horse is really, really small, it depends on what individuals you're going to have riding these horses.

Essentially, you don't want a horse that's super, super small, where maybe an adult can't ride him or her because of the weight issue.

The other thing also really important to look at is the way the horses move. When we're looking for a therapeutic riding horse, we're looking at whether or not they have a super bouncy trot. Do they have a super smooth trot? Are their hips even? Is this horse super unbalanced? If you have a super unbalanced horse and you have an unbalanced rider to begin with, it makes a bad combo.

Getting to know the horses is also important.  Getting to ride the horses bareback and feeling the way they're moving your pelvis and they're moving your hips has also made me a better instructor. It’s important to really analyze horses in a regular program as well, to see what kind of flaws that they have and how it affects the rider. But the biggest thing in therapeutic riding is temperament. They need to be safe.

Additionally, you want to look for a therapeutic riding horse that they like their job and want to work. It's very hard to have a therapeutic riding horse that does not like the job. Not only is it not good for them–they need to have fun–but also if the horse doesn’t like the job, they will give you behavioral challenges that can then turn into a possibly dangerous situation for the rider.

What is your favorite part about this field?

I think seeing how much it benefits these individuals, and not only these individuals, but these individuals' families as well, and how much joy they get from coming to the barn and coming to ride for just an hour. I can see how much it helps them, physically, socially, and emotionally. 

These riders can connect with these horses in ways that nobody else can. It is so special to see that and how some of these horses can just completely change these riders. Some riders might be struggling to walk or maybe they're struggling to do something, and then they get on a horse, and they can post, and they can go into their two-point position, and they also just have this sense of control. 

I think a lot of  times when you have individuals with disabilities, it seems like sometimes they can't control what goes on in their life, in their body. But, when they get on these horses and they can be independent and they can steer their horses and go and weave through cones and go over poles, it gives them control. You can see that sense of control and how empowering it is to be on such a large animal and have them be doing what they're asking them to do. 

This is such a rewarding part of the equine industry. Being a certified therapeutic riding instructor is a very rewarding job; seeing how much it benefits these individuals whether it's physically or socially, emotionally or cognitively, They are learning riding skills which helps them through personal challenges as well.

What advice do you have for those interested?

As you can, just get that hands-on experience; whether it's sidewalking or just leading a horse. Anyone who wants to be a CTRI definitely can. If you  put in the work, then you can 100% become a CTRI.

The first piece of advice I would give is having an open mind, for sure. A lot of the time, we have to train the horses a little bit differently because of the job they're doing. So having an open mind to different training styles and always try to be positive. As I mentioned before, being a CRTI can be a very emotionally draining thing.

The other piece of advice is to just remember why you wanted to do it in the first place. There are times where I think, oh, I don't want to go. I don't want to do it; It's too cold out. Then, you get there, and you see how much the horse has helped the rider and then I think, this is why. This is why I wanted to do it in the first place. 

Throughout my personal life, horses helped me like no other. I don't know if I would be here if it weren't for horses, just to be completely honest. I wanted to give that back to others and show how horses can help them just like they helped me.

Is there anything you’d like to discuss that we haven’t already?

I would like to add that Therapeutic Riding is, I think, the least known portion of the equine industry right now. Although, it is growing the fastest. If you want to become a CTRI, we always need more, and places are always looking for them. I believe there's only 5,000 CTRIs in the world right now. Only a few hundred have their Advanced Certification. 

Karen Brittle, who's the director of the TRACC program, just got her Master's Certification and she is now one of fewer than 40 instructors worldwide with this credential and the 25th person to ever get the master certification in the world. 

For more information on Centenary’s therapeutic riding program, contact Karen Brittle, assistant professor of equine studies and director of the University’s Therapeutic Riding program at: karen.brittle@centenaryuniversity.edu

Ella Barnett interviewed and wrote this interview as part of a class assignment in Intro to Journalism FA24. She is a frequent contributor of all-things-equine to The Cyclone Chronicle.