About the Nonprofit
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The mission of StableStrides is to significantly improve the well-being of individuals through a connection with horses. This is accomplished by providing therapeutic equine-assisted services (EAS) that increase the level of independence and strengthen protective factors for each client served. EAS Services provided include mental health therapy; physical, occupational, and speech therapy; and adaptive riding.
StableStrides was founded by Gay O’Rourke in 1981 when a community member asked for adaptive horseback riding lessons for his child with a disability. Gay realized there was a lack of access to equine-assisted therapeutic services in the region as continued requests for service were received from community members and medical professionals.
StableStrides has over 40 years of experience providing Equine Assisted Services to individuals and partnering with client-service organizations. This experience has developed the organization's unique willingness and ability to adapt program services to work alongside a variety of treatment models. StableStrides takes pride in providing transparent, upfront, and clinically appropriate services, a concept that can be surprisingly hard to find in the equine-assisted services industry today.
Adaptive riding was the original service offered. Over the years, StableStrides has grown to meet the local community's needs by modifying and adding program services. Physical, occupational, and speech therapy services were introduced in June 1989 at the request of therapists from UCHealth Memorial Hospital. There was no other professionally credentialed avenue for this service in the area at the time. In 1993, StableStrides served the organization’s first military clients. Each year, military clients now account for over 60% of clients served annually. Mental health therapy was introduced in 2010 through a partnership with Cedar Springs Hospital to help address the growing needs for mental health services in the region. Today, mental health therapy services make up approximately 50% of all services offered by StableStrides annually.
StableStrides has also taken steps to increase the organization's impact. In 1989, StableStrides voluntarily became Southern Colorado’s only Premier Accredited Center with the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl.), an internationally-recognized credentialing organization for the equine-assisted services industry. Beyond requiring the highest standards for staff and program services, the PATH accreditation allows StableStrides to maintain partnerships with other agencies such as Children's Hospital Colorado and Wounded Warrior Project, which requires this level of accreditation. In 2015, StableStrides opened a satellite location providing mental health therapy. This addition increased the organization’s capacity and created access for individuals unable to travel to StableStrides’ main location east of Colorado Springs. In 2019, StableStrides received Charity Accreditation with the Better Business Bureau as part of the organization’s commitment to transparency and financial responsibility and has received Best Workplace awards in 2018, 2019, and 2020. In recent years StableStrides has also introduced training requirement for staff that includes completion of a mandatory reporter and military cultural competency training.
StableStrides works diligently to keep the fee for services as low as possible. 98% of all clients receive discounted services. It costs StableStrides an average of $136 to provide each therapeutic session. StableStrides receives an average revenue of $38 per session in fees for services. The result is a $98 funding gap for each session provided. StableStrides must rely on contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations to fill this gap and ensure the program remains available. StableStrides also provides financial scholarships to low-income clients who would otherwise not be able to afford services.
One out of every 6.5 people in El Paso County has a disability. Five military installations are located in the county and military populations have a high need for therapeutic services. Already high youth suicides in the region increased by a staggering 54% in 2020. The community need for StableStrides services has exponentially increased in recent years and will continue to do so.
