Equestrian center planned for northwest Detroit aims to serve local youth
Detroit Horse Power hopes to break ground on the $8.1 million, 14-acre facility within the next year
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Local nonprofit Detroit Horse Power is getting closer to its vision of establishing an equestrian center for youth within the city.
Recent fundraising efforts have executive director David Silver optimistic that the necessary funds will be secured, with plans to break ground on the $8.1 million, 14-acre facility within the next year.
The equestrian center plans to serve hundreds of Detroit youth through focused programs, with the long-term goal of ensuring that every student in Detroit Public Schools has the opportunity to interact with horses at some point in their educational experience.
“There is a growing body of research showing that for young people, animal-assisted activities like working with horses have physical and mental benefits, including the growth of social-emotional skills,” Silver said in a press release. “We know that students with greater social-emotional competencies are more likely to graduate from high school, graduate from college, and persist in their chosen career paths.”
Currently, Detroit Horse Power caters to approximately 100 youth aged 11-18 annually, providing them with school-year and summer programs that involve traveling to supportive stables as far as Davisburg and East Lansing, while utilizing classroom and administrative space on the Marygrove campus. With the establishment of a dedicated facility, the organization aims to impact a significantly larger number of local youth, potentially offering horse-related experiences to ten times as many individuals as they do now.
The organization maintains an extensive waiting list and hopes that the center will make horses more accessible.
“Having consistent exposure to the same horses and greater involvement with their care takes the rider-horse bonds and their benefits to an all-together higher level,” Silver said. “Opening this new facility will mean horses play a far greater role in our student’s lives, at a space our students can count on and where they can take ownership. We are building an asset for the community and a launching pad for students to have successful futures.”
The forthcoming Detroit equestrian center, modeled after similar facilities in Los Angeles and Philadelphia but on a larger scale, will include classrooms, administrative spaces, an indoor arena with bleachers, multiple outdoor riding areas, and paddocks for horses to graze.
It will be situated on vacant land leased from the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) at the former Paul Robeson Academy location, which was demolished more than a decade ago following a fire. The site is located near Fenkell and Linwood, close to the Focus: HOPE campus in the Hope Village neighborhood.
Community members in the neighborhood are enthusiastic about the area’s development.
“From the very beginning, Detroit Horse Power has been deliberate about actively engaging the residents in Hope Village,” Jeffrey Jones, Hope Village Revitalization CDC’s executive director, said in the release. “Over the years, the neighborhood feels like real partners with DHP in this endeavor. Hope Village is excited to see this new facility open because it represents a transformational investment in our community that will impact generations of kids across the region.”
Growing up in the affluent suburbs of New York City, Silver saw how such opportunities like this could benefit communities and young lives and wanted to level the playing field for Detroit’s youth
“Looking back, it’s crystal clear to me that horses shaped me into the person I am today,” Silver said. “We say that equestrian training builds PERCS – perseverance, empathy, responsible risk-taking, confidence, and self-control.”
Having made the long treks to Detroit Horse Power’s partner stables in the program themselves, Cass Tech senior Le’Airra Jones and organization alum DaVion Sherman expressed that they believe having the center in the community could be a life-changing experience for many people of Detroit, as it was to them.
“We have significant fundraising yet to do, but we have momentum now,” Silver said. “We invite any individuals or organizations who want to contribute to youth opportunity and community revitalization to join us.”
More about the planned equestrian center is available at detroithorsepower.org.
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