As executive director of Loudoun Therapeutic Riding, Laura Smith witnesses the transformative impact of horses on individuals struggling with physical, emotional, or intellectual challenges daily.
She recalls a young woman who’d had a brain injury, a former rider who arrived in a wheelchair. Smith helped her get into a cart and learn to drive. On her first day, the young woman drove for about 10 minutes, and when she returned the following week, her mother asked Smith what they had done in the session.
“Her handwriting had gotten down to half the size that it had been because she was regaining her fine motor skills from holding the reins,” Smith said. “She wasn’t even thinking about it; she was just following the instructions.”
The next week, she was driving the cart 30 minutes and could put her hands together again. She was inspired to try new things and return to her former passions, like playing the piano. She was getting her life back.
“That was beautiful,” Smith said. “I wasn’t as familiar with the benefits of driving, but that was profound.”
As LTR, the oldest organization of its kind in Virginia, celebrated its 50th anniversary with a gala at Salamander Resort in Middleburg in November of 2024, they were also looking ahead to the next 50 years. Founded in Leesburg in 1974 by Leonard Warner and Barbara Baird, LTR has constantly evolved in response to challenges and opportunities.
Beginning in partnership with the Loudoun County Public School system, the Loudoun 4-H Riding Club and the Agricultural Extension Department at Virginia Tech, with support from Paul Mellon, LTR offered lessons at facilities around the county for decades before realizing the dream of their own facility in 2021 in Lovettsville, with an indoor arena and 25 acres.
“We’re one of the only centers that has 25 acres solely dedicated to equine services, and our next 50 years will be about expanding our programs to fully utilize them,” Smith said.
A Culture of Commitment
LTR has attracted loyal staff, volunteers, and donors, people like Joanne Hart, who became executive director in 1984 and served for more than 30 years. Hart recruited Kathy Blaine, who works as program director and has been with the organization for 31 years. Herd manager and lead instructor Debbie Gerbich has worked with LTR for more than 20 years.
Part of Hart’s legacy includes establishing a partnership in 2007 with North Spring Behavioral Healthcare, a pediatric psychiatric treatment center in Leesburg, positioning LTR to address mental as well as physical needs. In 2011, she started the Equine Services for Heroes program helping veterans. Today, thanks to a grant from 100WomenStrong, LTR will also be expanding that program to include first responders.
“Therapeutic riding itself has evolved from focusing on helping children and adults with disabilities, primarily autism, intellectual disabilities, as well as cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis. Things have shifted more into mental health,” Smith said. “More people are coming in with anxiety and depression, so our programming is evolving. While we’ve done therapeutic and adaptive riding or driving, we’ve also expanded into equine-assisted learning and equine-assisted psychotherapy.”
Smith insists that they couldn’t have served more than 13,750 participants without the help of the Loudoun community, which has evolved alongside LTR and has provided more than 5,000 volunteers.
“This has been a very generous and kind community,” Smith said. “All 115 horses we’ve had over the years have been donated, and the majority of the budget, 75 to 80 percent, is from donations.”
One of the oldest charities in Loudoun, and once one of few charities, it’s now part of a landscape of about 3,100 charities in the county, Smith said.
“We have a tremendous number of volunteers who have been with us 30-some years,” Smith said. “I’ve worked at other riding centers, but I’ve never witnessed a place where there are so many people who have been here for such a long time.”
The Next 50 Years
The physical benefits of therapeutic riding include improved balance, coordination, core strength, and proprioception, the body’s sense of its own motion and position. “Riding simulates walking, so for people with spinal cord injuries or who are learning to walk again, it reminds the brain how to walk, which is an amazing thing,” Smith said.
Cognitively, it requires riders to plan where they are going and follow directions. This develops spatial awareness and mental processing. Emotionally, she said, the horse is accepting and can help lower stress. “Patting a horse releases oxytocin, which helps you to relax and bond,” Smith said.
And mentally, it grows confidence, teaching students to lead, to relate, and to self-regulate.
In equine-assisted learning, Smith explained, “The learning is learning about horses but also about yourself with horses. Horses are a mirror and reflect things back to us. They always model appropriate social behavior, and they connect with us and accept us, and we’re finding this happens on the ground as well as in the saddle or in a cart.”
At LTR, an equine-assisted learning program called Horse Powered Learning enables students to learn about themselves in the process of discovering horses.
Equine-assisted psychotherapy requires a partnership with a mental health professional, which LTR has formed. “As a nation facing a mental health crisis and also certainly Loudoun County, we’re evolving and adapting our offerings to include more programming that addresses mental health needs in our community,” she said.
A Silver Spurs program offers opportunities for seniors, including groups from memory care units.
“We had a darling lady who celebrated her 97th birthday with us because she wanted to ride a horse again,” Smith said. “We have had a couple of seniors who used to ride and had a stroke, or something happened that set them back a little, so we do try to cater to horse people who are trying to experience riding once again.”
LTR’s programs touch on all these benefits, and a newly established endowment with the Community Foundation of Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties will help them continue to serve the area for the next 50 years.
“We are growing, and our capacity is increasing with this facility, so we have opportunities for people who want to ride,” Smith said.
Even as they’ve accumulated accolades like becoming the first premier accredited center with PATH in 1995 and earning recognition from the Equus Foundation for their 50 years of service, LTR continues to strive for excellence, and the results of a recent survey helped define why they’ve lasted so long and attracted such loyalty.
“What came back [from the survey] is that it’s really our core values that distinguish us from other centers,” Smith said. “Our core values are love, trust, and respect. We are a center of inclusivity; this is not a place where people are judged. They are accepted, loved, and encouraged to do and be their best and live their best lives.”
To learn more or become a volunteer, go to ltrf.org/.
“This is not a place where people are judged. They are accepted, loved, and encouraged to do and be their best and live their best lives.” —Laura Smith