Equine therapy helps kids with disabilities

Like Lopez, many parents of kids facing physical, mental and emotional challenges are surprised by how much equine therapy can improve their conditions. Early last year, Colorado State University launched a five-year project to study the benefits of such therapy and gather existing research.

“We have clients that say their first words from the back of a horse,” said Lili Kellogg, Equest’s operations director. “Or maybe they can button their shirts, or swallow food, or their handwriting improves — things we take for granted.”

Kellogg recalled sitting in the bleachers at Equest’s Wylie facility with a woman who had adopted a severely abused girl as a 3-year-old. At 10, the girl was among a number of children taking riding therapy classes. The children were lined up with their instructors, about to go through a trail pattern, when the girl’s horse sneezed. The girl laughed, and her mother suddenly went silent, a look of shock on her face.

“She said, ‘In the seven years I’ve had her, I’ve never heard her laugh,’ ” Kellogg said.

Equest’s gleaming South Dallas site, which includes an outdoor and covered arena, will not only reach a new population but ultimately expand its reach tenfold.

CEO Patrick Bricker said half of Equest’s 38 stalls at Texas Horse Park should be filled by year’s end, with regular classes starting by early June. The park’s proximity to the Dallas VA Medical Center will also bolster the agency’s Hooves for Heroes program for former service members.

Equest’s typical therapy horse works about 10 times weekly, with a service period of about five years. Autism has overtaken cerebral palsy as the agency’s most common client issue, the disorder affecting a third of its clientele.

In all, the agency serves about 300 clients a year but now expects to interact with an additional 3,000-plus through public appearances and school field trips to the facility.

Some of those visits will feature miniature horses Equest calls “mini ambassadors.” Cisco and Dare, a pair of 36-inch-tall beige-and-white beauties, were already enjoying their moment in the sun at the park’s grand opening event on a recent Saturday.

The minis were scheduled to visit the Dallas Library’s Polk-Wisdom branch as part of the Big D Reads program, currently featuring Charles Portis’ novel “True Grit.” Such appearances will enable teachers to illustrate horse-related book passages with a live animal.

“We’re taking what’s in literature to real life,” Kellogg said.

By also allowing kids to interact with horses and teaching them to interpret the animals’ moods through visual cues, Equest also hopes to encourage socialization and empathy.

“You never know which kids it might motivate,” said Joan Cutler, Equest’s program director. “If you can teach them empathy, that carries over to every other part of their world.”

By midyear she was straddling Crunchie; eventually her feet were in stirrups. Lately she’s been working on core strength and sitting tall, gaining confidence and stamina.

“Two weeks ago, she got to trot for the first time,” Grall said. “It was the most thrilling experience she’s ever had, with her hair blowing in the wind and giggling the whole way around the arena. It’s a big ego boost for her.”

For Rockwall’s Lopez, too, the therapy has been a godsend. While other boys Jonathan’s age whooped and climbed and ran and jumped, her son, now 7, seemed locked away behind a wall of silence and immobility.

But after Jonathan’s first session, his personality seemed to change. With some help, he took some small steps.

After the second session, he sat up straighter in his highchair and car seat. He didn’t need a pillow in front of him to keep him from collapsing forward.

Usually, as Lopez drove around doing errands, she’d need to stop to feed Jonathan. But this time she handed the cup to him, and he held it and started drinking.

What was going on?

Years of dealing with the challenges of cerebral palsy had been a series of defeats, maybes and not-yets. Over and over, Lopez had lost hope.

Now into his second year at Equest, Jonathan is nearly walking on his own.

“It has been a window in a dark room for me,” she said. “I can see the light. It may not make my child 100 percent normal, but it’s given him quality time. An opportunity to make a better life.”