Lara Hildebrand

When I was assigned a community partner for this project, I was excited at first, but then I started to have feelings of apprehension. Even though I was assigned to the Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding Program, which was a successful and established organization, I was going to be working with the senior health program. I was not sure what could be done for seniors that could not actively engage in horseback riding. Adding that to the fact that most senior centers were closed at the beginning of the semester as well as ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, I was sure that nothing would come of this connection. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when my group and I first met with our community partner and talked to them about their program and needs. For example, we learned about the newness of the program and the needs that we could help with. It was soon made very clear to me that volunteering and helping the community is not always done in typical ways and can be very versatile based on the needs of the community and society at large. In this case, seniors did not need to actually ride the horses to benefit from the program. They are still able to interact with the horses and staff in a way that got them moving and engaged with other people and animals. Just as the seniors could benefit in an atypical way, my group and I could use our skills to impact the program in a positive way without actually meeting with them face to face.