Therapeutic Horseback Riding Program Marks Decade of Service

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA

February 10th 2025

ASHAWAY – Watching the horses grazing in the paddocks at the Yellow Horse Therapeutic Riding Facility, it is not immediately apparent how profound a difference the animals make in the lives of the people who ride them.

Paul Yurof, of Hope Valley, is one of those people. Yurof, 68, has cerebral palsy, and riding improves his coordination and makes him feel stronger. He rides every Friday, usually on Millie, a mare with a bossy streak.

Yellow Horse owner, Joye Dolan, will teach the lesson, riding her own horse, Arrow. This session will focus on getting Millie to go where Yurof wants her to go.

“I think I’m going to be working on coming in and coming out, around the circle,” he said. “Sometimes, Millie don’t like to go too far around the corner, and I have to make her do it.”

Despite the occasional disagreement, Yurof said he and Millie had come to an understanding.

“Sometimes, I let her do her thing and I do my thing, hang in there together,” he said. “I think it’s a great program and I hope more people come in to help us and do this, because we need a lot of people in the summertime to keep going.”

Yurof’s sister, Peggy Morrison, drives him to the stable and usually watches him ride.

“Most people with CP [cerebral palsy] don’t have intellectual challenges. Paul does,” she said. “He has less physical, but he didn’t walk until he was three years old, and his coordination isn’t too good, and his balance. So this really helps him with that.”

It All Began with Barrel Racing

Yellow Horse is named for a Palomino named Bubba.

“When I used to barrel race, I was on the barrel racing circuit for the northeast a long time ago,” Dolan said. “People always knew me as ‘that girl with the yellow horse,’ so that’s how it started.”

In addition to barrel racing, Dolan had other demanding careers before opening Yellow Horse, including driving big rigs as a long - haul truck driver, and a professional jockey, riding racehorses.

Dolan started the Yellow Horse equine therapeutic program 10 years ago, in West Greenwich. After moving for a brief time to Exeter, she leased the current facility, a 140-acre farm in Ashaway.

The registered non-profit organization has a full-time staff of three: Dolan, her daughter, and a volunteer coordinator.

The Programs

“We work with participants, children and adults, with special needs, and we teach them relationship building with the horse and riding skills,” Dolan said.

Working in a program that involves horses and people with physical and intellectual challenges requires specialized training. Dolan’s facility has been certified by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemen, or PATH, as well as CHA, the Certified Horsemanship Association.

Dolan is also certified as an “Equine Specialist in Mental Health and Learning.”

Yellow Horse currently has 65 clients, some of whom don’t participate in the winter.

Thirty volunteers work at the facility, although that number also fluctuates.

“The majority of my volunteers are retirees who are still physically able,” she said. “It’s a physical job, for what we do. Some of it’s barn chores, cleaning stalls, filling water buckets, sometimes cleaning paddocks. There’s also grooming horses, and we have lesson helpers, which consist of a leader, someone who would lead a horse during the lesson, and then, side-walkers, the participant support that walks alongside to help support the rider.”

The horse leaders are required to have experience with horses.

“They are in charge of the horse and knowing horse behavior and how to handle horses – safety is Number One,” she said. “We are very, very safety conscious here. We have to be, because we are dealing with horses. They’re prey animals, so their instincts are fight or flight.”

Participants in the program are usually referred by others, and must have a doctor’s release in order to take part.

“Believe it or not, over the past 10 years, I really never have advertised, ever,” Dolan said. “It’s been word of mouth, mostly, referrals from other participants or friends and family, or within the community.”

Each participant is evaluated according to his or her needs, and one of the facility’s 11 horses is chosen for that person’s program.

“We have a mini horse, her name is Penelope, and we call her ‘the appetizer,’” Dolan said. “She is instrumental in participants who may have a fear when they come, because there are some riders that are a little timid and apprehensive.”

The first sessions involve participants walking and grooming Penelope, if they are physically able. There is also a program called “Walk On” that doesn’t involve any riding.

“Penelope is one of the favorites, because our wheelchair participants actually wheel her up and down the driveway,” Dolan said. “…We have a couple of ponies, right up to our tallest horse, Arrow, he’s 15.3 [hands] tall.”

The 45-minute lessons are given six days a week, and Dolan makes sure the horses are not overworked.

“My horses, they are top priority. Their happiness and well-being are first and foremost in my mind, always,” she said. “I have retired several. They’ve met their max, because this is a tough job. It’s not physical, but it’s mental.”

Some of the retired horses work in the less demanding Walk On program, while others have been adopted.

Fundraising and recruiting volunteers are ongoing challenges. The program has a waiting list of riders, because there aren’t enough instructors.

“Some of them have been on the list for a year, and I can’t hire any more instructors, because I don’t have the revenue, and what we charge, at $75 [per lesson] doesn’t cover our expenses,” Dolan said.

Yellow Horse also offers a small program for veterans.

“It’s not sustainable, because I don’t charge any veteran,” Dolan said. “No veteran will ever pay, because I come from a military background and I like to give back, especially my dad serving for 20-plus years in the Marines,” Dolan said.

Why Horses?

Dolan believes horses have special qualities that enable them to help people.

“A horse can hear your heartbeat within four feet away from you, so if you’re very nervous or excited, they’re going to feel it,” she said. “A horse will reflect a lot of what a person is feeling, and that’s why having an experienced certified instructor is key to read those signs. … Being able to read a horse and knowing what is going on between the rider and the horse is key, so they also are very forgiving animals.”

For people with physical challenges, riding a horse can be life changing.

“Think of our riders who have mobility issues, like, in a wheelchair. They’re able to get on a 1,200-pound horse and be free for the first time and move this horse around an arena and hopefully, independently, without an assistant,” Dolan said.

More information on Yellow Horse can be found on the group’s website.