Our vision is to provide the opportunity for challenge of the mind, body and spirit by connecting individuals and animals through love, understanding, care and involvement. It is our mission to enrich the minds, the bodies and the spirits of children and adults with disabilities through horse related activities.

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Luci Center Featured in KET Kentucky Life program

Luci Center Honored

The Kentucky Center for Instructional Discipline (KYCID.org) selected the Luci Center as the featured charitable organization for the "2005 Choices and Changes" seminar held in Louisville in March 2005. For the seminar, SursumMedia.com of Frankfort was commissioned to produce a 5-minute video production introducing the LUCI Center. Over 1,000 seminar registrants viewed the production and then heard LUCI Center founder, Paula Nieto, speak on the benefits and challenges of the LUCI Center. KYCID selects one charitable organization to feature each year at this seminar. The production includes interviews with several LUCI volunteers (on a very cold, gray day therefore shot in the barn) and then footage was shot of them doing their chores, taking care of the horses, etc. Actual classes don't begin until May which is why there is no footage of riders, however, photos were included of riders incorporating pan and zoom techniques. Special thanks goes out to Jack Waldenmaier at MusicBakery.com for his generous donation of the music for this project.

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 Helping through Hippotherapy

The Luci Center is proud to offer hippotherapy to individuals with severe physical disabilities in addition to our regular therapeutic riding program.

Hippotherapy uses the movement of the horse as a treatment tool under the guidance of a licensed therapist (most often a physical or occupational therapist). In hippotherapy, the horse’s walk provides sensory input through movement which is variable, rhythmic and repetitive. The resultant movement responses in the rider are similar to the human movement patterns of the pelvis while walking. The variability of the horse’s gait enables the therapist to grade the degree of sensory input to the rider and then use this movement in combination with other therapeutic strategies to achieve results.

Providing both hippotherapy and therapeutic riding allows The Luci Center to identify the best match to client needs. The highest quality of instructors is required to provide the highest quality of therapeutic riding instruction or hippotherapy. For this reason, all Luci Center instructors are either certified Occupational/Physical Therapists or are certified instructors or instructors in training, working to be certified by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association.