In a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Atlanta’s mayor and other leaders, the Chastain Horse Park in Buckhead opened its new 18,000 square-foot facility.
The therapeutic horsemanship center is for Chastain’s therapeutic riding program, which offers therapy, learning, and horsemanship programs for individuals with disabilities. Trisha Gross, the horse park’s executive director, said the new venue was needed to meet its growth.
The center has volunteer spaces, educational spaces, a fully operating physical therapy and occupational therapy clinic, and offices for its staff.
“We used to operate all of this out of the barn,” Gross said in a pre-ribbon-cutting interview. “While we have a barn, the new center is 18,000 square feet. That is home to about 30 horses.”
At the ribbon-cutting, held March 28, leaders spoke about the center and its importance to Atlanta.
“This park was one of the last remaining urban horse parks in the nation, and it has served its community for … nearly 90 years,” Mayor Andre Dickens said. “And thanks to a successful almost $10 million capital campaign, more Atlantans can experience the transformative programs available right here at Chastain Horse Park.”
District 8 Atlanta City Councilwoman Mary Norwood lives near the park. She said she attended an event at the horse park in 2002, after she was first elected as the council’s Post 2 at-large member.
“The mayor was here, and the [county] commissioner was here, and everybody said, ‘Are we gonna step up to the plate?’” she said. “And I said, ‘[If] y’all step up the plate. I’m stepping up to the plate. So my very first contribution was at the mayor’s request, and he was stepping up to the plate, to this horse park. And I just loved doing that. I knew immediately how important this is and would be for our city to continue to claim what we love, which is we do the best at everything.”
Justin Cutler, Atlanta’s parks and recreation department commissioner, added, “The premiere accredited program has touched countless number of lives, and with the completion of this 18,000 square-foot facility, we’ll be able to expand that and touch even more.”
Gross said the new center will also have two new covered arenas, accessible spaces for individuals with disabilities. The horse park serves participants ranging from 2 to nearly 80, she added. In its therapeutic program, it conducts about 5,000 therapeutic sessions a year and fills 1,300 volunteer slots per month.
“To begin with, we are a PATH (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship) international program. They are our governing body,” Gross said. “We are a PATH premier accredited center, which means we meet or exceed the highest standards in our industry. PATH is an international governing body. So, we are one of two remaining urban horse parks in the U.S. We are operating on city of Atlanta land, and on any given day we have 55 to 60 urban-dwelling horses here.”
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