A Guide To Corinth's SpiritHorse Therapeutic Center

SpiritHorse Therapeutic Center
1960 Post Oak Drive
Corinth, TX 76210
(940) 497-2946
www.spirithorsetherapy.com

It has helped thousands of special needs children learn to walk, talk and reach their full potential, but now a North Texas program that specializes in horse therapy is in danger of shutting down.

The SpiritHorse Therapeutic Center in Corinth offers its services free or charge, but the struggling economy has caused the organization to take a big hit.

"Our major funders, the foundations who provide 65 percent of our funding, have really been hit hard by the stock market." said owner and operator Charles Fletcher.

Cameron Gibbons, 5, smiles wide when he goes to his riding lessons at SpiritHorse.

"We've been coming since he was nine months old." Cameron's mother Rebecca said, "I realized how much these ponies and horses could do for these children that I had no idea would happen."

Cameron has Down syndrome, but has developed at a pace similar to other children his age. His mother credits the horse therapy.

"He walked normally, he crawled normally, he had the muscle tone that some don't have," she said. "it's helped tremendously."

SpiritHorse has 31 horses and ponies and serves more than 400 riders a week. But it's currently operating in the red.

"In June we had a $30,000 dollar shortfall," said owner Charles Fletcher.

Fletcher doesn't know how much longer he can keep the stables open. The horses now feed on the front lawn so he can save money on food. The 72-year-old has maintained the center by charging $150,000 dollars on his personal credit cards, which are now maxed out.

"We're just up against a wall and we need help from the public." he said.

The center, which has never advertised or charged a penny for services, operates seven days a week and has a waiting list of more than 100 names.

While Fletcher said he would love to expand, he's now desperately seeking donations just to keep the current riders in the saddle.

"To see such a nice facility and a sweet facility that provides endless opportunities for children that otherwise wouldn't get them, to see it shut down that just doesn't seem possible to me," said Rebecca.

"I would die," Fletcher said. "I would literally die."