Rising Stars

Starting Small... Dreaming BigRising Stars started as a small program with a Big Dream. Serving just 18 participants in its "pilot program in 2009; the program is now in its 13th season. Our original mission was to provide hippotherapy and therapeutic riding to those in need in the south-central Idaho area in a safe, caring environment at little or no charge to the participant. In these years since 2009, we've expanded in both quantity and quality of services we provide; Summer 2021 was our biggest session yet with 105 participants, over 150 volunteer hours, 18 horses, 6 instructors, 4 occupational therapists, and 2 physical therapists. With this growth has come the realization that its still only a drop in a bucket. Rising Stars can offer much more! After years of steady support from our community and hard work from our staff and volunteers we were able to purchase our own property in 2017! We now have 20 acres with a view that we are rebuilding on! For us this means opportunity to offer veterans programs, equine facilitated psychotherapy, cooperative programs with schools and other human service organizations, and simply to allow our participants to benefit from their trusty equine friends for more than just 6 months of the year. As of December 2020, we have completed the building of our indoor arena, and our office/therapy building. With this new addition we have two therapy rooms, bathrooms with running water, office space, and a viewing room for families in a temperature-controlled environment. This has allowed us to have programs all year long in 2021. We have started construction on our Community Park that will be open to our community to have a quiet place to visit and enjoy, hold events and game days, music nights and more. We look forward to our future and the many programs we can provide going forward with this current growth.