Tucked away among the farms and nurseries of South Miami-Dade is a place where horses provide hope to children and adults in great need.

Good Hope Equestrian Training Center offers horse therapy to about 300 children, youths and adults with physical, cognitive and developmental disabilities. The nonprofit organization also recently started working with veterans, many of whom have developed post-traumatic stress disorder from multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Any condition that is going to hinder your daily living can be a disability,” said Good Hope director Peggy Bass, 44. “If you’re within our mission and our scope, let us help you.”

Through horseback riding and caring for one of the center’s 12 horses, children and adults learn self-confidence, make emotional connections, develop muscle tone and learn basic skills that in some instances can lead to a job.

Good Hope is the only Miami-Dade center with a premier accreditation from the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH), a nonprofit founded in 1969 to promote therapeutic horseback riding. In Broward County, Horses and the Handicapped of South Florida in Coconut Creek also has a premier accredition from PATH.

Good Hope offers day and afternoon programs on weekdays. Participants learn how to ride, groom, care and equip horses, as well as learn about horse breeds, nutrition and gait.

In addition to those skills, the adult groups also learn functional living skills, computer technology and physical fitness. A group of disabled adults, for example, took a field trip to Zoo Miami on Feb. 3 to learn more about the zoo’s educational aspects.

Good Hope recently received a $15,000 grant from the Miami Foundation, and another $5,000 for equine-assisted programming dedicated to autistic children.

Nan Brooks, 60, conceived the idea behind Good Hope with the help of her former husband, Pal, Bass and her daughter’s pediatrician Dr. Warren Quillian, a prominent pediatrician whose father began the pediatric training program at Jackson Memorial Hospital and was the first department chair at the University of Miami medical school. Good Hope opened in January 2000. Brooks’ inspiration for the facility was her daughter Jennifer, who has been severely handicapped since birth and is unable to walk or talk.

“Jennifer had been taking riding lessons for a number of years and loved the horses,” Brooks said. “Other than family, the horses were the one thing that Jenny really got excited about.”

Jennifer, 33, attends programs at Good Hope and “loves every minute of it,” her mother said.

Jennifer’s physical strength has improved significantly since riding the horses. Increased muscle tone is one of the benefits of horse therapy, Bass said.

In the case of 9-year-old Keion, riding his horse, Stan the Man, has dramatically improved his ability to open his legs and has made his frame more loose and limber, said Jody Cox, a certified therapeutic recreational specialist. Keion has cerebral palsy.

Good Hope does not focus solely on the physical benefits of horseback riding. The interaction with the horses also helps the students’ social skills.

“Even though she’s nonverbal, she communicates with the animal with her kisses,” said Quillian, 76, of Jennifer. “She’s incredibly intelligent.”