Rose Parade Clydesdale Retires as Therapy Horse for Special Needs Children and Adults

One of the iconic Clydesdale horses featured in the Pasadena Rose Parade on New Year’s Day is now a therapy animal at a ranch for special needs children in Santa Clarita.

Express Employment Professionals, a staffing provider, purchased the horse, named Ex Decker’s Nash, and donated it to Carousel Ranch, a non-profit charitable organization providing therapeutic horseback riding for special needs children, improving the quality of their lives.

The horse will be trained to be one of the ranch’s therapy horses. Because of its larger size, the horse will be able to accommodate riders who don’t sit up alone and need to have an instructor ride behind them, as well as riders who are too big for the small-sized horses.

Carousel Ranch’s equestrian therapy program serves about 80 special needs children each week.

“I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the community of Santa Clarita, they’ve helped us grow our business phenomenally in such a short time, because of that we’ve been able to make this purchase and gift the horse to Carousel Ranch,” Yvonne Rockwell, owner of Express Employment Professionals, said.

For more information about Carousel Ranch, visit www.carouselranch.org.