Last year on Sunday, September 17th, 2006 Armadillo Digital Audio hosted their Sixth Annual motorcycle Ride for Autism.

The ride was intended to increase public awareness of autism and related spectrum disorders and to raise funds for Carousel Ranch.

Carousel Ranch deals mainly in therapeutic horseback riding for the disabled. It combines instruction in traditional horsemanship skills with concepts of physical therapy to improve the strength, balance, and self-esteem for physically and mentally disabled children and adults.

To an individual with a disability, horseback riding takes them into a new, unexplored world, and provides a sense of independence and freedom that defies their disability. Therapeutic riding challenges our riders in ways that they have seldom been challenged before. Therapeutic riding achieves improved coordination , muscle strength, joint mobility, perceptual skills and self confidence. The opportunity to work with a horse, to groom and help saddle it are very real sources of excitement and pride. Moreover, each step a horse takes requires our riders to use their muscles to maintain balance and challenges their minds to work to guide the horse. Almost every disabled person can benefit from therapeutic riding. We have seen major benefits for our riders who have come to us with disabilities that range from cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, brain injury, stroke, learning disorders, and emotional problems.

Carousel Ranch is unique because they offer three types of equestrian therapy. Their programs include vaulting (gymnastics on a moving horse), English, and Western therapeutic riding. In general, therapeutic riding has been defined as horseback riding for the disabled. It combines instruction in traditional horsemanship skills with concepts of physical, occupational, recreational, and speech therapy to improve the strength, balance coordination and self-esteem of physically and mentally disabled children and adults.