After more than 30 years of relying solely on privately owned farms and barns in Connecticut and New York to provide our services to people with special needs, Pegasus Therapeutic Riding opened our own facility in Brewster, N.Y., in the fall of 2007.

Set on a sweeping hillside overlooking picturesque Peach Lake on Route 121, Pegasus Farm is the former location of Dr. Bill Bradley’s New England Equine Practice. Thanks to a generous anonymous donor who made a transformative gift of $2.1 million, we were able to purchase the 20-acre property in June 2007, fulfilling our decades-long dream of owning a therapeutic riding facility.

As soon as our boxes were unpacked, we set our sights on accomplishing a number of short-term goals. We converted the former veterinary facility into a space that better accommodated the needs of our staff and horses, developed an outdoor riding ring, and began work on our sensory riding trail.

Program got up and running quickly at Pegasus Farm, with our first group of students arriving in the fall of 2007. The positive impact that owning our own facility had on our programs was immediate: instructors could run sessions six days a week, at various times of the day, and for more weeks each season. This enabled us to accommodate more students and give them the opportunity to ride more often.

Meanwhile, our hardworking horses and ponies benefited from an expanded pasture area that allowed them to enjoy a more natural living environment. Not only do they now have the ability to move freely for extended periods of time, they are also able to disconnect from the taxing job they have as therapy partners and simply be horses.

With our foundation firmly in place, we began working towards our long-term goal of building an indoor riding arena so that we can run our programs year-round in a climate-controlled environment. Approval was granted in the summer of 2008 for the first phase of our plan, which included construction of a covered outdoor arena, installation of a stormwater management system, construction of run-in sheds, completion of our barn manager’s onsite apartment, and improvements to our parking areas and shared entrance.

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous rider family whose $1 million gift made the project possible, site work began immediately after our summer session ended in August 2008. The project was completed just before the start of the new year, and the covered outdoor arena was first used for program in the spring of 2009.

The covered outdoor arena, coupled with the improved sensory riding trail, allows us to offer a greater number of students a wider range of therapeutic services. Among the many benefits the arena offers, program is much less affected by inclement weather, and our students, instructors, volunteers and horses are more comfortable during the hot summer months. In addition, the horses and ponies benefit from improved footing and year-round conditioning. Most importantly, the larger ring enables instructors to expand the scope and variety of their lessons, which challenges and inspires both the students and their equine partners.

In addition, the sensory trail has engaged many a horse and student as they navigate the peaceful, shady pathways that wind their way around the wooded fringe of our property. Designed to provide visual, auditory and tactile stimulation, the trail immerses our students in a completely different environment than a traditional riding ring. The availability of the contrasting man-made and natural venues at Pegasus Farm allows our instructors to customize lessons even further and keep the students motivated through the variety of experiences they are now able to introduce.

Meanwhile, our four other chapter locations, Fox Hill Farm in Pleasantville, New York; Kelsey Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut; New Canaan Mounted Troop in New Canaan, Connecticut; and Ox Ridge Hunt Club in Darien, Connecticut; continue to thrive, serving our students who are local to those areas.