a young girl riding on the back of a brown horse

Volunteer

Volunteering with Horses has Never had a Greater Impact

Whether you’re looking to volunteer with horses, with kids or just like to welcome people into a new level of specialized care, we offer many ways to make a difference. As a 501c3 public charity, we attract and rely on hundreds of volunteers each year to help with our events, classes or simple grounds upkeep. Here are the many ways you can give your time, energy and expertise to a great cause.

Volunteer Opportunities

Class Assistance

All of our classes need leaders and side-walkers.

The leader is responsible for the horse. They maintain the horse's pace, calmness, and focus while allowing the client to do as much as he or she is able. This role is perfect for those who are familiar with horses, or are interested in learning how to work with a horse.

The side-walker is responsible for the client. They help reinforce instructions in the lesson, provide balance and physical support, offer encouragement, and supervise. This role is perfect for those that enjoy interacting with the client hands on.

Be Our Barn Help

Keeping our stables, stalls, paddocks and arenas clean, orderly and functional helps our herd do their job. Activities include mucking stalls, cleaning water buckets, feeding and haying the therapy horses, sweeping the barn aisles, cleaning out the cross ties and wash stalls, turning out and bringing in the horses from paddocks, and assisting the facilities manager as needed. If you like to take care of horses and your schedule varies, this is a great volunteer opportunity. We need help every day of the week and even holidays. Shifts can start as early as 7am and go all the way to noon or 3pm if your schedule allows.

Build Your Office Skills

Do you prefer helping in an office setting? Many come to us to volunteer with the horses, but we also love help with various tasks including database entry, mailings, event coordination and research. Skill-based volunteers who have experience in Excel, or similar are incredibly helpful as grow our organization to support more clients. We are also always looking for help recruiting volunteers. So if you know Dallas and the surrounding area and love to seek out potential volunteers and partner organizations, we would love to have you join our volunteer team.

Volunteering as a Group

With over 40 acres of land, multiple barns and riding arenas, Equest welcomes groups looking to have a community day of service. We can accommodate groups from two to 25 adults and will strive to align projects with group goals and preferences, to the best of our ability and needs. We do require advanced notice to prepare for a large group and companies must provide proof of liability insurance. If the work day includes lunch, food must be provided by the company/group.

Help with Our Next Event

As a nonprofit organization, we rely heavily on our events to raise money and awareness about our programs. From preparation and execution to break-down, our volunteers are critical to the success of our events. This role is perfect for those with seasonal availability, or skills in event planning or fundraising.

Looking for Your Next Internship?

We offer internships centered around equine-assisted activities and therapies as well as nonprofit administration. Interns are considered and personalized based on the candidate’s experience and interests, as well as the needs of our organization at the time of application. Candidates will be asked to complete an Internship Application and volunteer application including background check. Please submit the internship application along with a resume, letter of intent, and references to Kim Burris kburris@equest.org

Ready to Volunteer?

We’re excited to welcome you to our volunteer team! All of our volunteers are required to complete the necessary forms, including a background check. All volunteers require one volunteer training session. Our volunteer training sessions are held rain or shine.

To become an Equest volunteer, we ask that you complete these three tasks:

1.

Sign up and create a profile in the Equest online volunteer system.

2.

Complete the volunteer application (pay $10 background
check fee).

3.

RSVP for training.

Next volunteer training dates:

May 11
June 1

Project Examples

Outdoors and Barn – Tree trimming, trail blazing, fence repair/installation, flower bed installation/maintenance, mowing, weed eating, mucking stalls, power spraying.

Indoor – Envelope addressing and stuffing, mailings,
window cleaning, special event preparation and tear
down.

One time projects – Painting, building small items
such as jumps, sensory course elements, or trail
course obstacles.

Special Events – Preparation, set-up and clean-up for Equest annual events.

Volunteer Today!

Sign Up To Volunteer