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Thanks to Clayton Homes Bean Station, riders at Ridin’ High Therapeutic Center can “clippity clop” on their horses across a sturdy bridge as they navigate Ridin’ High’s Sensory Trail.

Clayton donated the structure, which allows access from the indoor arena to the trail and pastures. The Sensory Trail, which winds through Ridin’ High’s 15-acre property, provides visual, tactile and auditory stimulation for riders as they interact with a variety of man-made activity stations along the way.

Ridin’ High, the only certified therapeutic riding center in the Lakeway Area, provides low-cost equine assisted activities and services to children, youth, and adults with a wide variety of physical and emotional disabilities, such as autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, learning disabilities, and sensory processing disorder.

“We are grateful to Clayton Bean Station for supporting our mission by providing the ‘Clippity Clop’ bridge,” Ridin’ High Board Member Lisa Rigg said. “It is an expensive activity station and required a significant effort to professional design, engineer, and build it. Clayton provided all the materials and skilled personnel to construct the bridge and our riders benefit from their generosity on a daily basis.”

Ridin’ High Director Linda Bird is also enthused about the new bridge.

“The Clayton ‘Clippity Clop’ Bridge is extremely well-made,” Bird said. “We literally use the bridge multiple times each day for therapeutic lessons, to train our therapy horses, and as an efficient way to bring horses to the barn. It’s so well-built that we can even drive across it with our utility vehicle. Best of all, our riders love the bridge. It gives them the confidence-building experience of going across the bridge on a horse. It also provides sensory feedback from the sound and feel of the horse’s footfalls.”

Rigg summarized the appreciation of the Ridin’ High board members and riders.

“We are excited that we can use the activity stations on the trail to promote function and help people have a better quality of life,” Rigg said. “In fact, we get comments daily about how much we’ve impacted and improved the lives of our riders. The Clayton ‘Clippity Clop’ bridge provides us with the ability to use even more interventions to impact the lives of our riders. We are extremely grateful for the support of Clayton Bean Station for the way they are helping us change lives.”