Important Dates

Office Closed October 10 - Thanksgiving

No Lessons October 10 - 14

Volunteer Orientation - October 13, 6:00 p.m.

Office Closed November 11 - Remembrance Day

No Lessons November 28 - December 1

Last Chance!!

New Draw Date September 30

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Upcoming Event

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Welcome back; we hope everyone had a fabulous summer. Over the summer PARDS was a busy place with 5 weeks of our Inclusive Youth Summer Camps, 2 weeks of Little Pony Motricity Camp and a week of Adult Therapeutic Skills Development Camp along with numerous public programs.

September 12th our sessions began and we welcomed over 120 riders. We have spaces still available in many of our programs; for information and to register please click on the link below.

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Meet Our Instructors

Community Spotlight

Thanks to the generosity of our community, PARDS is excited to announce two construction projects underway.

The Rotary Club of Grande Prairie and the County of Grande Prairie provided the funds for PARDS to construct a 4 bay garage and storage building with 2 heated bays and 2 cold storage bays. The heated bays will accommodate the year round storage of our accessible bus, tractor and 3 side by sides and provide space to perform standard maintenance and care. The 2 cold storage bays will provide space to store seasonal equipment as well as space to store resources that are not required on a daily basis and a workshop space to complete projects. The care, maintenance and protection of our assets is of the utmost importance to the organization. We have been extremely fortunate to have effectively fundraised or secured through gift-in-kind donations an accessible bus, tractor, skid steer and 3 side-by-side units. The bus removes barriers to participation for those riders that do not have means of transport to and from their lessons. The pieces of maintenance equipment are integral to the care of our herd and our grounds for daily feeding chores, cleaning paddocks, clearing snow, etc. Currently, these pieces of equipment are stored in our barn area overnight which creates safety hazards and negatively impacts accessibility as the barn was not designed to accommodate this. The bus is parked in our lot year-round. Although we have a resident living on-site we have, sadly, experienced a number of instances of theft from our property which has contributed to the critical need for secure storage. This project will address all of these concerns and more!

The Rotary Club of Grande Prairie and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. also provided the funds necessary for construction of a hay and shavings storage shed. This past winter we experienced severe snowfalls resulting in the snow load collapsing our square bale hay storage structure. This structure was very old and had some structural issues prior which have deemed repair an unviable option. The growing seasons over the past 4 years resulted in extremely low production of high-quality feed and highlighted the importance of PARDS protecting the feed on hand through to the next growing season. This structure will help us protect our investment, as well as the valuable gift in kind donations of feed over the fall, winter and spring until the following growing season each year. We are very fortunate to have shavings for bedding donated and, by providing a walled and covered structure for storage, we will experience much less wastage due to wind and moisture which will result in our not needing to supplement the annual shavings donations with purchased bedding. This will result in more of our financial resources being available for use in direct program priorities.

Youth Leadership

The following is a letter we received from the parent of one of our participants. Cheyenne (name changed for privacy) has participated in 5 sessions of the Youth Leadership program.

“The PARDS Youth Leadership program prevented our family from falling into an abyss. Our daughter, Cheyenne, had a disastrous transition to secondary school and as a result, developed severe anxiety and has not attended school since. We found her school and family doctor were no help at all and we were unable to gain timely access to Children’s Mental Health Services. There is so much need for so many kids and resources are very limited. As I have discovered, if a child is not deemed “in crisis” their needs fall between the cracks.

“Cheyenne spiraled quickly into a really, really dark place and withdrew from everyone and everything. The pandemic added another layer of challenge to an already challenging situation. I'd heard good things about horse therapy in the past and found out that you were still offering programs and that's why we decided to try it. Getting to the first lesson was a huge hurdle but now Cheyenne attends every week and actually looks forward to the sessions. The connection she has made with the horses has been amazing and inspiring; I've watched her gradually come out of her shell and re-engage with herself and the world. At the end of one session my daughter said 'I love it here Mom, I can just be and forget all the stupid, mean and crappy stuff.' Horse therapy has been a powerful constant through a really difficult and ongoing journey. Our family is so grateful that we have a program like Youth Leadership in our community.”

~ Cheyenne’s mom

The next session of Youth Leadership begins in the Winter Session which startNovember 28th. To learn more about the program and to register, please follow the link below or contact the PARDS office.

Visit our Website