So rather than go back to the university on Minnesota, I decided to go into nursing. When you live as I did in a hospital for 6 months, you know the hospital. The environment accepts everyone, because there are all kinds of weird people walking around. It was the most comfortable place to be. I was in my 30’s.

I graduated back to horses. If I wasn’t going to do the 3-day events, I thought perhaps I could teach horsemanship. There was something in me that was able to teach. I went to school at the University of Wisconsin. I worked with Dr. Ensinger. He is the director of the Wisconsin Animal Hospital.

My dad got hired in Silicon Valley working with computers. They bought a house in Scotts Valley in about 1986.

I BUILD A NEW THERAPY CENTER IN A GARBAGE DUMP

We have this amazing facility leased from Monterey Bay academy. We lease it. It used to be first big dairy in Santa Cruz County. It was built by the metal and woodshop students at the academy. They did an amazing job. It was then used for a dump. We came out for a ride one day. He said “you guys should come out to the beach! Bring the kids to the beach!” We did, and as we were driving out, I saw this amazing barn.

At that moment, I said “This is going to be our facility.”

It was in 2000 when we started getting to work. Now we are overlooking a scenic bluff overlooking Monterey Bay. We are under a massive structure. The arena is under a roof 250 feet by 150 feet. We have 30 horses. We have 70 kids a week. We have 17 volunteers.

We run multiple programs. We have the indoor arena. We have stalls, paddocks, a beautiful deck and classroom. We have a homework program, tack rooms, feed rooms. It all works by volunteers. They work with the special needs group and the volunteers get to ride in return. We have 3 show teams. We have programs for special needs adults, a sunset riding club.

FOR SPECIAL NEEDS KIDS, HORSES WORK MAGIC

Recently we have had some amazing successes. We are now getting kids from Stanford. We are getting kids who are so small and have an inability to push through pain that they won’t push through the physical therapy. When you re two years old, it is too painful to do it, whereas adults can push through the pain.

The kids love to get on the horses. About 6 months ago, we had a little girl named Annabelle. She was a micro-preemie, about a pound at birth. She had three total-body transfusions. She has had all kinds of medical issues and problems. She came to us from Stanford with adenosis, no muscle in her upper body.

When we started working with here she could only walk on her tip-toes. She could not walk backwards, squat, kneel, and jump side to side. She worked every other day on Lizzie, a big Percheron with massive haunch muscles. Every time she walks forward, she throws up that muscle mass through the body of the child. It bombards them, but they just think it is the motion of the horse. The kids don’t focus on the physical therapy they are receiving.

After 6 months of working with Annabelle, she now runs, walks backwards, squats, kneels, and jumps side-to-side. Because it was so painful, she had stopped talking and went to sign language. She started talking again. She is now three years old.

This center is a non-profit agency, 501c-3.

A little boy Tyler is with us now. He is five, and when his mom came, she was holding him in a brace that went around his body, and had a big handle on the back. She held him like she carried a suitcase. He walked like a spider. His arms and legs are totally splayed out.

Now he has been here about 5 months and he now runs beside his mother. His legs are now almost normal.

The magic of horses is huge.



GETTING KIDS BACK ON HORSES AFTER RAPE, AUTISM, and BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS


We have kids who are violent, autistic. We have a group of girls who in are a home for rape victims 14 years and younger. When these girls came here, they were all in hooded sweatshirts with dark glasses, hands in pockets, heads down, slumping across the parking lot.

Now they show up in t-shirts and jeans, run into the barn, hug the horses. There’s not a child who is not impacted.

Little Casey had major behavioral problems. She wouldn’t look at anyone, wave to anyone. She couldn’t interact with the outside world. Case y is 8. After 3 months here at the center, her mom says “I can’t believe the difference in Casey. She waves at people, smiles, wants to touch people.

Every kind of child and disability responds to horses. Horses are non-verbal. It’s all about body language. Before we have even seen these kids on the horses, the horses have the kids totally figured out. The horses behave so differently with these kinds of kids. I am sure that they do this through body language. The horses understand that there is something totally different about these people. The horses understand that they have to compensate.

GENTLE GIANTS

For example, Dakota might bite and kick and stomp on the volunteers. My son Timmy has many disabilities. He can stick his hand in here mouth and up her nose and around her tongue and grab her ear. She stands there like a rock. They know they have a job and they know these people need them.

If someone only has one eyelash that works, we can get them on that horse and they are no empowered and they become an athlete through the horse. If you play tennis or any other activities with handicapped, someone else is assisting, or something holds the kids.

But these people get on the horses and they can go places they might never go. They can walk and run on the beach. They can go on trails.

PARAPALEGIC, AND RIDING TALL AS HUSBAND AND WIFE

A gentleman and his wife come to the Monterey Bay Horsemanship and Therapeutic Center. He is a paraplegic and his wife is not. They came for “Shared Adventures” one day. These people are in their late 20’s.

He said: “I’ve always wanted to go on trail with my wife, but we could never do that.”

We got two horses that are real compatible and be patient and they rode off hand-in-hand. They are able to experience something that in any other way they couldn’t. She is always taller than him because he’s in a wheelchair. But when he is on a horse, they are totally equal.

When he came back from his trail ride, he was just in tears. He said “I never had such a wonderful afternoon with my wife.”

It’s huge. Every day these horses do some amazing thing. They totally rescue children and adults and bring them back from circling the drain. Suddenly whole worlds open for people.

This is not a boarding facility because this is THEIR facility. The teenagers have to come into this facility…it is total integration.

When they are integrated into school, a little group of special needs kids go into their classroom, but they are still in their own little group. This facility is about these kids and people. It doesn’t matter what you have, you are totally accepted in this facility.

ARE THERE OTHER CENTERS LIKE THIS IN THE US?

No. People call us from different areas. We have people who move here from Texas and Maryland. There are centers of hippo therapy, and there are centers that do handicapped riding, but not the way we do it. We put them on the horses and we expect them to get better. We expect them to ride.

In hippo therapy, they get on a horse and a person leads the horse, one walks on either side and someone drives the horse. There are 5 people for one rider.

NATHAN TAKES THE LEAD (ROPE)

We have a very severe autistic little guy named Nathan. He is extremely athletic. You would think he would be a terrific rider. But when everyone is riding he is bored to death. He turns around backwards. He got off one day. His life is micro-managed because he has these great outbursts.

Nathan was on Tina, an amazingly quiet wonderful horse. I said “just give Nathan the lead rope.”

They said: “What if Nathan blows up?”

I said: “It doesn’t matter. Tina is just going to stand there.”

So they gave him the lead rope. He looked at it. Held it. Lifted it up and down. He saw that it was connected to Tina, and connected to his hand. So then he walked forward a couple of steps, and she walked forward. He thought that was pretty cool. Then he stopped and she stopped.

So Nathan’s whole deal is this: You put a lead rope in his hand, and he just walks everywhere because he has the control.