Therapeutic Horseback Riding Volunteer

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Volunteers are the backbone of our program. Our 100+ volunteers assist with lessons, groom and exercise horses, fundraising, create and facilitate special events, and help maintain our facility. Whatever your interests or talents, we have an important job for you!

We are located just outside of Kearney, MO. Our classes are held at NTRC on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons/evenings and Saturday mornings, and our season runs from March to November. All of our new volunteers will be invited to an orientation to get to know our program and see if this will be a good fit for you and for us.
Weekly Volunteer Tasks

• Side Walkers - Assist riders in the saddle by supporting them physically or assisting them cognitively. No horse riding or handling experience is needed, but you must be comfortable around horses. All new volunteers are generally started as side walkers, but may take on other tasks once they’ve become more familiar with our program.

• Horse Leaders - Lead a horse for a rider during classes. You must have some experience handling horses on the ground to be a horse leader. Additional training is required and provided.

• Horse Handlers - Grooming, tacking, and exercising horses before classes begin. You MUST have riding experience to serve as a horse handler. Additional training is required and provided.

• On-call Class Volunteers - We OFTEN need substitute side walkers and horse leaders for our regular class volunteers. If for any reason they cannot make it to their scheduled time slot, we need volunteers who we can call as fill-ins. This is a great option for those who want to come be involved but cannot make a regular weekly commitment.

Other Volunteer Opportunities

If you cannot commit to a weekly time slot, not to worry! There are other ways you can help at NTRC!

• Fundraising: We NEED you!! We are always in need of volunteers to help with the planning of NTRC's fundraising events such as Evening of Hope, Run so they can Ride 5K, Murder Mystery Dinner and more. We normally meet once a month, but this may be more around major events.

• Special Events: Outside of planning, we also need volunteers for occasional NTRC events such as our annual Horse Show, fall festivals, parades, etc. We also rely on volunteers for office assistance, photography, and social media surrounding these special events.

• Volunteer Outreach: We need volunteers who can assist with outreach such as putting flyers around key areas, and help at informational booths.