The Comox Valley Therapeutic Riding Society

05/22/2026

🐝Well that’s something new for us around here!
🐝Our barn staffer Sarah noticed some new tenants in one of the horse’s paddocks this afternoon!
🐝As cute as they were, they needed to be evicted ASAP, before human, horse or bee got injured.
🐝A quick post to the VI Bee Keepers Society and Shauna and her team came to save the day!
🐝Thank you for helping CVTRS and the Bees!

05/18/2026

Today 5 of the horses from our CVTRS herd participated in the Cadora test day.
This was a chance for our exercise riders to get feedback from a dressage judge without the pressure of being in a show.
This is one of the many ways we keep our horses working well, fit, healthy and happy to work in our program.

Bailey - Danielle Marie
Peaches - Sharon Friesen
Maverick- Heather Lantz
Friday- Hilary Doucette
Hope- Ashleigh Whitney

As always, we are so proud of our humans and horses, and the excellent test scores didn't hurt either🤭

Thank you to Courtenay CADORA Dressage Club for hosting today, and the volunteers who made it possible!

Our hands were too full to get photos of all 5, but we did get a few.

04/15/2026

Today is bittersweet here at CVTRS as we announce the retirement and say farewell to our senior instructor Tegwyn Harper.
Teg will be moving back home to England over the coming months to be closer to family, especially her granddaughter.
Teg has been a pillar of CVTRS since she first moved to Canada in 2007. We are so grateful for her dedication to the society for the last 😱 nearly 20 years 😱. We will miss her knowledge, skill and support, but most of all her compassion and infectious energy.
Before the packing starts she is heading on a trip to Portugal next week to immerse herself in the working equitation world and further her education.

Yes, her horses WILL be taking the journey to fulfill their destiny as English horses, but the verdict is still out if they will participate in tea time.

Teg, we will miss you SO much but wish you all the best on your return home, and a happy retirement.

Happy trails 🐎

04/02/2026

🐎 For the horses of therapeutic riding, the three “F”s – friends, forage and freedom – are key to their health. For the clients of therapeutic riding, two of those “F”s – friends and freedom – are critically important too!

🐴 It’s a key motivator for Hilary Doucette as Executive Director of the Comox Valley Therapeutic Riding Society. The opportunity to ride a horse is very beneficial to the physical and emotional health of the 60+ clients with disabilities who participate each week.

📍Comox Valley Therapeutic Ridings calls the CVRD’s Comox Valley Exhibition Grounds home – Celebrate recreation and tell us your story at https://engagecomoxvalley.ca/reccustomerservice

03/12/2026

A great infographic about the differences between the 2 helmets!

💁 We had a Mom for a new rider ask us the other day, so thought we'd share...

02/14/2026

🌹Roses are red ♥️
💠Violets are blue 💙
We'd like to introduce
🐎 Tetris to you! 🐎

Tetris is a 13 year old, 15.2hh draft cross gelding. He came to us from Squamish BC, where he has spent the last couple of years trail riding and keeping his tiny pony pasture mates in line. It's a big job - somebody's gotta do it.

Tetris only arrived 3 days ago, so he has just been spending his time settling in and getting to know his new home and routines.
When people say their horse has a " puppy dog personality", what they mean, is their horse is like Tetris.
Affectionately called Toodles, he loves to spend his time toodling around with kids and being groomed from sun up till sun down. This sounds like the making for a great therapy horse!
We immediately fell in love with his soft, sweet, gentle personality and can't wait to get to know him more💖

Happy Valentine's Day!

02/12/2026

02/04/2026

This is a great article that explains a bit about why us instructors are so fussy about position! Not only is it good for the rider, it's good for the horses too 🐎

01/30/2026

🌧️Oh the weather outside is frightful…but the BARN is so delightful!

While the fields and trails here at CVTRS are flooded, our horses are tucked up safe and dry in the barn!

All of us here send our thoughts to the humans and animals displaced by the flooding, and hope things dry out quickly!

01/21/2026

We're back!
Peaches didn't get the memo and dressed for summer holidays instead of winter. We helped her out and traded the cool shades for her warm blanket so she could join her pals in the field for a few weeks of R&R.

Over the holidays the horses enjoyed a week of just eating and socializing in the field, a week of liberty and play time, and finally some riding in the arena and trails! They are all rested up and didn't miss a beat getting back to classes.

We made it through our whole herd last year with "Horse of the Month" posts.

This year we thought we'd share some different topics like things we do to manage our horses care, choosing horses for the program, and some of the equipment we use!

Do you have questions you'd like to see answered? Drop them in the comments!