Mediative Urbanisms – Entry 117
Presented by:
Nancy Moise – tremadotdot (at) gmail (dot) com
Louisville, KY
URBAN HORSE FARM
Louisville’s innovative Irish Hill is uniquely situated for Kentucky’s first urban hippotherapy treatment center and farm.
Programs
Collaboration with sixty impacted health agencies, city, state, & federal governments, local & regional education centers and companies creates four hands-on programs with symbiotic funding and operational solutions.
- Hippotherapy involves occupational/physical therapy for children and adults utilizing equine movement to achieve physical, mental and developmental health of those with mobility, speech, visual and hearing impairments, emotional disturbances, learning disorders and at-risk populations.
- Vocational groom education for high school students to care for the horses.
- Two-year barn management college students see to the running of the stables.
- Occupational/Physical Therapy Interns conduct the hippotherapy.
Neighborhood at a Confluence
The combined resources of its stakeholders returns this brownfield to ecological jewel by traditional cap and plant technology remediation.
Sustainable improvements to the Lexington corridor linear public park include removal of non-native plants, adding a limestone wall and view-scape addressing safety concerns. The limestone wall continues after Payne Street. An Administration building hearkens the Liebert Farmhouse. Neighbors, Louisvillians and tourists, whether by commuter rail to the north, the #19 bus to the south, by foot, bike or on horseback, or relaxing in the City Club atop the Transportation Center, enjoy views of limestone walls and four-panel-fenced pastures of paddocks for horses or crops, wetlands, riding arenas and barns. Area residents receive a discount to encourage their own health and home improvements at the green grocer inside the retail building that also houses a cafe and tack shop.
This Kentucky signature industry showcase realizes hippotherapy with the revenue-generating potential to contribute to its own upkeep; equine-based training providing job-relevant skills in and outside the horse industry; and on a very personal level, aspirations realized far beyond the confines of a disability – all here in the heart, and hearts, of Louisville’s Irish Hill.
