Coffee Hour At The Commons

Today Coffee Hour at The Commons is on the road again, in Bristol, at Shepard Meadows Therapeutic Riding Center. It’s on land donated to the Episcopal Church in Connecticut to be used for ministry, which is an expression of God’s love, and that’s certainly what’s going on here. The vision for the use of the property and some of its buildings for a therapeutic riding center started in 2004 and the center officially opened a year later with two horses and a pilot program for three children with special needs.   Today it is a premiere accredited center, one of six in the state, accredited by PATH International, the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship. It has seven horses in its herd, lots of volunteers, and a staff of five. Today we’ll be talking with its executive director, Shelly Whitlock-Pope, who’s also a PATH-certified instructor, and Dave Demarais, a long-time volunteer with the center, Vice-President of its Board of Directors, formerly on the staff of ECCT for property management. That