Southern Reins | History

Mission, Vision and History

Our Mission

To serve individuals with physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities and hardship by providing equine assisted activities and therapies to empower, inspire, nurture and succeed.

Our Vision

Our vision is to provide transformative experiences through equine assisted activities and therapies to serve the growing needs of the Mid-South community.

History

Southern Reins Center for Equine Therapy was founded in July of 2015 to serve people with disabilities and hardship in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas. Operations originated in Nesbit, MS where the organization held a partial lease to begin its programming to serve the Mid-South.

Our program has experienced tremendous growth quickly, and we realized that it was necessary to locate land or an existing equestrian facility to continue growing to meet the need of the families we serve. Southern Reins found the ideal property located in Collierville TN and closed on a beautiful 28-acre facility in January of 2018. The Collierville Campus includes a 12-stall barn, attached covered riding arena, 6 turnout pastures and home that has been converted to office space.

The organization was thrilled to continue serving Mississippi residents through its satellite DeSoto Campus, located at Lynch Ranch in Hernando MS. Thanks to the dedicated support of the Lynch family, our DeSoto program continues to flourish.

The miracles we see on the backs of our horses and ponies are simply incredible, and disability disappears in the saddle at Southern Reins.

Southern Reins is a charitable non-profit organization, EIN #47-4647784

Community Impact

In the greater Memphis area, there are 322,690 residents with disabilities age 5-64 who have the opportunity to benefit from equine assisted activities and therapies offered by Southern Reins Center for Equine Therapy.

With a focus on access and inclusion, compassion and caring, education and collaboration with community nonprofits and partners, Southern Reins serves a roster of more than 220 participants annually.

The program offers support for individuals with autism, Down syndrome, spina bifida, stroke, cerebral palsy, developmental delay, ADD, spinal cord injuries, PTSD and more. Through equine assisted activities and therapies, participants experience improvements in quality of life, as well as cognitive, physical, emotional and social well-being.

Southern Reins is a place where small victories are pivotal achievements.

People who use wheelchairs and walkers are able to walk tall in the saddle – looking down at everyone else atop their favorite therapy horse.
Riders with autism who do not want to touch or be touched reach willingly to gently pat their horse’s neck and mane – making a connection far beyond any words that can be spoken.
And for the girl with cerebral palsy, who was unable to brush her teeth or change her clothes, she is now able to do those small tasks we take for granted for the first time in her 21 years – just from riding a horse at Southern Reins.

Those are matchless moments that happen every day for our participants, and they define and drive us to follow our mission so that more people have the opportunity to achieve, aspire and amaze.