Shining Stars Therapeutic Riding Program

For over 20 years, the Shining Stars Therapeutic Riding Program has provided equine therapy to youth and adults with special needs, seniors, veterans, and at-risk youth in order to improve the physical, mental, emotional, and social areas of their lives. Our programs help individuals in our community develop strength, build confidence, and achieve goals. 

Our program serves 250 people annually across 1,500 programs with the help of over 200 volunteers and 18 horses. While we are located in Gettysburg, roughly 35% of our participants live in York County (most in the western part of the county). 

Programs we offer include: 

• Therapeutic riding to help children and adults improve strength, balance, posture, and coordination. It reduces symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression, while creating an environment of trust and mutual respect. 
• Therapeutic cart driving for individuals who cannot mount a horse. It engages core, arm, leg, and trunk muscles, in addition to hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, while improving concentration, perception, and awareness of surroundings. 
• Silver Stars for senior citizens, which provides equine for our older population who suffer from depression, feelings of agitation, anxiety, and other psychological issues.
• Equine Connection, an unmounted program that develops effective communication skills, leadership strategies, and confidence. 
• Stars and Stripes for veterans, which is offered free of charge to people who served our country. This gives veterans the opportunity to connect and build fellowship while helping each other work through issues, and then participate in therapeutic riding. 
• Our summer and winter horse camps give young people the chance to learn about the love and hope God gives through horses. Many of our kids go through stressful or tragic circumstances.

No participant is ever turned away because of inability to pay for programs - we maintain a scholarship fund to ensure that financial concerns are not a barrier to our community getting the care they need from horses they love.

Unfortunately, demand for our services has grown beyond what we have the capacity to meet. In late 2022, we were blessed to be able to purchase, through generous donations, a 60-acre horse in between Hanover and Gettysburg. We have designed a 38,000 square foot facility that will give Shining Stars room to grow for years to come. This $6.8M project has been divided out into three phases - construction on Phase 1 will start in March 2026.