Saddle Up!

Looking to get your child involved at Saddle Up!? Here is how to take the first step! 🐴✨

At Saddle Up!, we serve children and youth with disabilities. As a PATH International Premier Accredited Center, we pride ourselves on providing high-quality equine-assisted services tailored specifically to your child’s needs and interests.

🌾 Our Programs Include:
Adaptive Riding & Adaptive Horsemanship
Therapy Services
Fun on the Farm
Equestrian Club
Interactive Vaulting
From the Ground Up

📋 How to Get Started:

Explore Our Offerings: Program eligibility differs depending on the specific program, child's age, and individual needs.

Contact Our Team: Have questions about eligibility? Our Program Department is here to guide you through the process!

We’d love to welcome your family to the barn! 💛

🔗 Get Started Here: www.saddleupnashville.org/programs
📞 Phone: 615-794-1150
📧 Email: [email protected]

Tickets are available for Chukkers For Charity! 🏇✨

Get ready for an unforgettable afternoon of high-goal polo, incredible food, tailgating, and fun for the whole family at Riverview Farm! Whether you’re planning a field-side tailgate with friends or enjoying the event from a VIP Cabana, this is a Middle Tennessee tradition you won't want to miss.

Best of all? Proceeds directly support Saddle Up!and the Rochelle Center helping us provide life-changing programs for children and adults with disabilities across our community! 💛

🎟️ Grab your tickets now before they sell out: chukkersforcharity.net

Event Highlights:

🐎 High-goal polo match

🥂 VIP Cabanas & Tailgating Competition

👧 Stick Horse Race for the kids at halftime and stomping of the divots!

Tag your polo crew below and start planning your match-day! 👇

To the parents on the sidelines—this day is for you. 💛

When people see equine therapy, they see the rider in the saddle, the horse stepping gently, and the instructor guiding the way.

What they don't always see is everything it took to get to that moment:

The extra coordination to get here every week

The patience on the tough days and the quiet cheering on the good ones

The endless advocacy, dedication, and unconditional love behind the scenes

While our horses do incredible work in the arena, you are your child’s primary anchor and biggest champion. Watching your unwavering support inspires our entire team every single day.

Today on Parents’ Appreciation Day, we want to say thank you. Thank you for trusting us, for sharing your wonderful riders with us, and for being the heart of our community. 🐴✨

The Saddle Up! Tack Sale is coming August 8th! 🛍️🐴

🗓 Date: Saturday, August 8
📍 Location: Saddle Up!

Shop for a Purpose: Find fantastic deals on gently used equestrian gear! Every dollar raised goes directly to supporting our therapeutic riding and equine-assisted programs for youth with disabilities.

📦 We are STILL ACCEPTING TACK DONATIONS!
Cleaning out your tack room? We’d love your support! Donate your gently used saddles, bridles, blankets, and supplies to help us make this sale a huge success.

Contact us at 615.794.1150 to coordinate a drop off. See you at the sale! 💛

🐴🌟Breed Spotlight: Fjord! 🌟🐴

These distinct horses are one of the oldest breeds and so full of personality. Our own Ike began as a trail horse before he was generously offered to Saddle up! by Gloria Cooper. He is a gorgeous dun known for his steadiness in lessons and friendly personality. Ike loves greeting everyone at Saddle Up! - horses and humans alike.

🐴The Science and Art Behind Equine Lesson Planning 🐴

Creating a meaningful lesson in equine-assisted services is a multi-step process that bridges skill-building and personal growth.

Here is a look at how our instructors design a purpose-driven session:
📋Establish the Individual Goal: Whether social, physical, or skill-based, everything starts with what the rider needs—like targeting core strength or building confidence.
📋Select the Supporting Skill: We identify the specific riding skill that supports that goal, such as steering competence or posturing.
📋Map the Progression: We build a clear ladder of success—moving intentionally though a lesson to build skill.
📋Design the Arena: We set up purposeful obstacles (ground poles for target locations, hula hoops and bean bags for hand-eye coordination, barrels, and railroad ties) to make abstract skills tangible.
📋Integrate the Environment: When weather permits, we take learning onto the trail—using the natural terrain to challenge balance, communication, and observation in a holistic way.

Purposeful planning makes for powerful progress! 💛

It's a million little things that make a lesson at Saddle Up! so special.

🙂The warm greeting when entering through our electric doors.
👩‍🍼The PATH certified instructors with a full lesson plan for the day.
☕A waiting area with toys and books, a workspace and couch for parents and caretakers, a coffee and tea station, and a full view of the arena.
👨‍🍼The smiling leaders who have horses ready at the cross-ties and tack waiting to put on each horse.
🐎The excited side-walkers who assist with brushes and buckles and remain next to each rider for the whole lesson from the cross-ties, into the arena, and back again.
🎠Phony Pony equicizers near the mounting block for practice and play while waiting to mount.
🙂Heading back to a waiting parent, grandparent or caretaker after the lesson excited to share what goals and skills were worked on today.
🔁And getting to repeat it all again next week!

Each lesson at Saddle Up! is full of a million tiny moments to experience growth, inclusion, reaching goals, and being part of a community. Each lesson is proof that at Saddle Up!, every child is equal in the saddle.

🌻 Weekend Question!

There's something magical about spending time in the barn.

Maybe it's the smell of fresh hay.
Maybe it's the quiet nickers from the horses.
Maybe it's watching a rider accomplish something they never thought possible.

For all of us at Saddle Up!, the farm is more than a place—it's a community filled with hope, encouragement, and countless moments that stay with you long after you leave.

What keeps you coming back to Saddle Up!?

🐴 Is it a favorite horse?
❤️ A volunteer experience?
😊 Watching a rider succeed?
🤝 The friendships you've made?

Share your favorite Saddle Up! memory in the comments—we'd love to hear your story!

Picture yourself in a VIP Cabana at the 2026 Chukkers for Charity.

🧺Gourmet Picnic Dinner
🍹Bars with Signature Cocktails and Mocktails
🐎High Goal Polo Match
🎁Silent Auction with Premium Experiences
🌱Stomping of the Divots
🐴Stick Pony Races

Every ticket purchased helps support the life-changing work of Saddle Up! and the Rochelle Center, providing therapeutic, educational, recreational, residential, and employment opportunities for children and young adults with developmental disabilities throughout Middle Tennessee.

📅Saturday, September 12
📍Riverview Farm, Franklin, TN

Gather your friends, family, clients, and colleagues and be part of an afternoon where sport, community, and purpose come together.

🎟️ Reserve your tickets today and celebrate 30 years of impact with us!

VIP Cabanas, VIP Individual Tickets and Tented Tailgating Spots are available at https://chukkersforcharity.net/

👋 Meet Lindsey Wood, Chief Operating Officer at Saddle Up! 💙🐴

If you've spent any time around Saddle Up!, chances are you've met Lindsey.

As our Chief Operating Officer, Lindsey helps lead the day-to-day operations that keep our farm, therapy horses, programs, volunteers, and staff working together to create life-changing experiences for children and young adults with disabilities.

She's a problem solver, a leader, a horse lover, and one of the friendly faces you'll often find around the farm making sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes.

What Lindsey loves most about Saddle Up! is watching participants discover confidence, independence, and joy through the unique connection they build with our therapy horses. She knows that every lesson is the result of a dedicated team working together to help each rider reach their goals.

Whether she's supporting our staff, welcoming families, working alongside volunteers, or helping care for our herd, Lindsey's passion for our mission shines through in everything she does.

If you see Lindsey around the farm, be sure to say hello! We're grateful to have her leadership helping make Saddle Up! a place where every child has the opportunity to grow, connect, and thrive.

💙 Help us welcome (or reintroduce yourself to!) Lindsey in the comments below.