Children of serving members
Kids of currently serving members of any branch, including the National Guard and Reserve. Deployments and PCS moves are hard on every military kid — harder still for a child with special needs.
A national nonprofit · Therapeutic riding
For the kids who serve, too.
Purple Cavalry funds therapeutic horseback riding for children with special needs from active-duty, combat-wounded, and veteran military families — at no cost to the family.
Partnering with certified adaptive-riding barns across the country
Our mission
To provide therapeutic horseback riding and equine-assisted services to children with special needs from active-duty, combat-wounded, and veteran military families — improving physical ability, emotional resilience, and quality of life.
Military children grow up with deployments, moves, and worry beyond their years. When a child also lives with a disability, the family carries even more. We put those kids in the saddle — because in the saddle, a child isn't a diagnosis or a dependent. They're a rider.
Who rides with us
Our riders are children and teens with physical, cognitive, or developmental disabilities whose parent serves — or has served.
Children of combat-wounded veterans
Children of Purple Heart recipients and veterans wounded in combat. When a parent comes home changed, the whole family heals together — and the kids deserve a place in that healing.
Children of disabled veterans
Children of veterans who carry a VA service-connected disability. Their families keep serving long after the uniform comes off, and Purple Cavalry rides with them.
No family ever pays. Every rider's place is funded by donors, sponsors, and community partners.
How a scholarship works
From application to first ride in three steps. Each rider completes an 8–12 week session, one to two lessons per week, with goals set for that rider.
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Apply
Families complete a short application and provide a physician's release confirming that riding is safe for their child.
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Match
We place your child with a certified adaptive-riding instructor at a partner barn near you, and set goals together for the session.
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Ride
Your rider saddles up. Lessons build strength, confidence, and connection week over week — and Purple Cavalry covers the cost.
Our first partner barn
Visit horsesthatheal.org
Maryland Therapeutic Riding
Crownsville, Maryland — a PATH International Premier Accredited Center that has served riders since 1996, and home of the Equine Services for Heroes program.
Why horses
A horse doesn't see a diagnosis. Decades of adaptive-riding practice point to the same things families tell us after week one.
Strength and balance
A horse's walk moves a rider's body much like walking does — engaging core strength, posture, balance, and coordination in a way a clinic room can't.
Calm and regulation
Horses respond to feelings, not labels. The rhythm of the ride and the quiet of the barn help many riders find focus and calm.
Confidence
Directing a thousand-pound partner teaches a child what they're capable of. That belief follows them out of the arena.
A place to belong
The barn is a team: riders, instructors, volunteers, and families who get it. For military kids who move often, that belonging matters.
Three ways to ride with us
Purple Cavalry is donor-funded and volunteer-powered. Pick your post.
Fund a rider
Your gift pays for lessons, adaptive gear, and rides to the barn.
Example gifts
- One adaptive riding lesson$75
- Half a session (6 weeks)$450
- A full 12-week scholarship$900
Join the cavalry
Side-walkers, horse leaders, event hands, photographers, and fundraisers. No horse experience required — partner barns provide training for arena roles.
VolunteerPartner barns
Run a certified adaptive-riding or equine-assisted services program anywhere in the U.S.? Join our first partner, Maryland Therapeutic Riding — let's fund riders together and fill your saddle times with kids who need them.
Partner with usSaddle up
Applications for our first rider cohort are open. If your child qualifies, the ride is on us — every lesson, every week.
Start an applicationQuestions first? Write to hello@purplecavalry.org