The Texas Therapeutic Riding Center now has a new home in Wylie at 2300 McMillen Road. Previously, the nonprofit called the North Texas Equestrian Center home. Sonia Duggan/The Wylie News

The rapidly expanding need for therapeutic sports riding has prompted one nonprofit to move to a new facility so it can better serve its existing and future clientele.

On May 2, Texas Therapeutic Riding Center (TxTRC) volunteers and staff moved its horses, tack and equipment from North Texas Equestrian Center in north Wylie to a quiet, six-acre space located just a few miles south at 2300 McMillen Road. 

“We had outgrown where we were because it was a shared facility,” said program director Shelby Nicoletti. “We are thankful we could grow there for five years and get our footing.”

In the eight weeks since the move, Nicoletti and her team of volunteers, including TxTRC board member Carrie Lindsey, have built a fenced in area in a grove of trees a short distance from the barn where horses can graze, constructed a tall ramp for riders who use wheelchairs, mapped out a space for a future indoor arena and formulated a long wish list of future needs for the property. 

“It’s been whirlwind,” Nicoletti said of the move. “We have a good team of volunteers, everybody pitched in.” Even with the move, the director said her students competed at the Special Olympics state competition in May and “everybody won lots of medals and was very prepared even without the arena.”

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