History of TROT

2022

The Larry Levey Foundation supports TROT’s 6th pasture expansion and irrigation project.

2021

TROT completes the building of a long-awaited dream: a covered arena.

2019

TROT completed a large irrigation project that turned once dirt pastures into luscious grassy pastures for our equine partners.

2010

TROT therapy clinic opens offering Physical, Occupational, and Speech therapy thanks to a grant from Angel Charity.

2006

TROT launches one of the nation’s first Heroes on Horses programs for disabled military veterans.

1998

TROT co-founder Nancy McGibbon is published in a national medical journal, one of the first scientific research studies in the nation on the benefits of hippotherapy for children with spastic cerebral palsy, and subsequently publishes further studies in 2003 and 2009.

1994

Equine Facilitated Learning and Psychotherapy programs launch thanks to a gift from Sierra Tucson’s Bill O’Donnell.

American Hippotherapy Association is formed. TROT’s Nancy McGibbon is a founding member and the first president of the new Association.

1986

A long-term lease agreement is drafted for TROT’s present home on Woodland Road. The lease is signed with Pima County Flood Plain Control in cooperation with City and County Parks and Recreation, Tucson City Council and Pima County Board of Supervisors.

1985

TROT operates in a vacant lot thanks to the generosity of Bob Cote of Tanque Verde Guest Ranch.

1980

TROT moves to a horse farm on north Tucson Boulevard owned by dedicated TROT volunteers Deon and John Kellner.

1975

Jim Click Automotive Team helps provide transportation for TROT riders to Al-Marah Arabian Farms, which was considered far outside the city limits at that time.

1974

TROT is co-founded by Nancy McGibbon and Barbara Rector and begins offering services at Bazy Tankersley’s Al-Marah Farms in Tucson, one of the first programs of its kind in the US.