Welcome to the Magic of Personal Ponies Therapy Programs
Personal Ponies began with the dream of our founder, Marianne Alexander (and just two ponies) to do something special for special children. As a 3 decade breeder of Connemara Ponies and Irish Sport Horses, she wanted to give something back. She discovered the incredible sensitivity of the UK Shetland Pony to children with disabilities, and saw first hand how they changed children’s lives.Our mission today is to bring SMILES and PONY MAGIC to all special folks’ lives; to bring joy in a most unusual way. We believe (and we’ve seen it happen over and over again!) that the lives of anyone with special needs are immeasurably enriched by having a small equine companion to love and interact with— so this is what we do! Our ponies are uniquely suited in temperament and size to small children but work their magic with any age, size or need.
Since our humble beginnings, Personal Ponies has grown into a national organization with ponies placed in almost every state. Our breeding program has about 15 stallions, 40 mares and more than 300 program ponies serving their communities.
We offer several programs:
• Therapy Center Placements
• UK Shetland Breeding Program
• Volunteering
We also partner with Pet Partners; a well respected national organization who evaluates and registers animals as therapeutically ready to serve. We have negotiated a partnership where Pet Partners provides discounts to folks/centers having our ponies go thru their training, evaluation and registration program. The 2 year registration with Pet Partners comes with $2 million liability insurance coverage. While Personal Ponies has been breeding, raising and placing ponies for over 30 years, we felt it would be beneficial for centers to know that our ponies not only have our endorsement but can meet the requirements of an objective third party. This also provides another certification for a Center on their program.
To get more info on why you might consider Personal Ponies to add ponies to your community service programs click here: Why Consider Ponies from Personal Ponies? We would welcome any questions and inquiries you may have. Enjoy looking through our site; we have a long and rich history of placing our special ponies in special environments to connect with people of all ages and abilities.