Disabled children lose horse therapy

SALEM, Ore. – Nearly two dozen disabled children have been left without a horse therapy program, which their parents credited with helping them achieve miracles, after the program’s insurer went bust.

H.O.R.S.E.S., which has provided therapeutic horseback riding for disabled children and adults for more than a decade, closed Wednesday.

The organization’s liability insurance company was going out of business, and finding a replacement proved too expensive.

Kerrill Knaus, one of the founders of H.O.R.S.E.S., said the program had been insured by Colorado Western Insurance Co. for more than 10 years. When she heard Western Insurance was closing, she thought she would call three or four insurance companies and choose the one with the best quote, she told the Statesman Journal.

But things proved far more difficult.

After calling more than 30 agencies, she found that none provided liability insurance for horse trail riding for people with disabilities. The few that did wanted to charge fees four times what she was used to paying.

What used to cost the organization $4,000 per year would now cost $17,000.

“There is no way we can afford that,” Knaus said, who added the organization has not had an accident in 16 years of operation.

“The horse business, in general, has been getting harder and harder to insure,” said one insurance broker, Mike Kohout. Expensive accident claims filed throughout the years, he said, has caused insurance companies to go out of business or stop working with equestrian businesses.

“It’s a huge national problem, but it is a reality,” said Michael Kaufmann, the director of education of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association.