The power of horse

Three area ranches use horses to give the disabled strength and confidence

BY ANNE QUINN

In Native American legend, horses represent power. Man could travel only limited distances before he tamed these swift animals to carry him, stories say. The capabilities of engines and motors are still measured in terms of horsepower.

Three county programs harness this power to aid people with disabilities. They are Rancho de los Animales for the Disabled, in Nipomo, Partners for Equestrian Therapy (PET), in San Luis Obispo, and Horses and Riders Together (HART), in the North County.

"I hope riding will help him use more words," Jeannette Tabar said of her son Michael, who has Down syndrome. Michael is 22 years old but looks 12.

He sits straight and tall on the horse as he is gently led around

the ring at Rancho de los Animales for the Disabled. Jeannette said before he started riding his only words were "‘Coke’ or ‘ice cream’–the only things that mattered to him"–and he spent most of his time shopping or watching TV.

Now, when she mentions riding, he runs to get his boots.

"Whoa!" Michael commands the horse when Jeannette calls at him to stop for a picture. All the gentle horses at Rancho de Los Animals are voice-trained. Michael could never learn to pull on the reins or direct a horse by using his knees, his mother said.

From a nearby white minivan, the Rancho’s owner, Beth Currier, oversees things. Grabbing the hand controls, Currier starts the engine and inches the van along a car track next to the ring. Closer now, she leans far out the window to explain something to a volunteer.

Rancho de los Animales spreads across eight eucalyptus-dotted acres on the Nipomo Mesa. Its grounds are too sandy for Currier's wheelchair.

Currier speaks in an authoritative voice, authority gained from her 30 years of advocating for the disabled. She just retired after working at the Cal Poly Disabled Resource Center for 20 years. At the Rancho, the volunteers are youngsters, some as young as 8. Instinctively, they respond to Currier.

"They learn horsemanship as well as how to work with different people here," explains Currier. "In exchange, they get to ride these gorgeous horses," she said, pointing to a Leopard Appaloosa, a favorite that the children call the "polka dot horse."

Currier understands children who love horses. She herself has been riding since she was 10, even though she was told she would never ride again after she contracted polio when she was 12.

"It wasn't so bad when the doctor told me I would never walk again, or feed or dress myself again. But when he said I would never ride again, it broke my heart," she said. She was hospitalized

for two years.

Her father refused to see his little girl's heart broken. Soon after her release from the hospital, Currier's dad put her up on a horse. When she slid off, he put her up again. For a long time, she did nothing but sit there, with the horse standing quietly, she said. Then she was able to keep her seat as the horse took a few steps, then a few more, and then went into a walk and a jog.

"Riding strengthened my abdomen, the muscles in my trunk and back, and gave me arm strength," she said.

It also gave her the needed confidence to endure public high school in the ’50s, when people's misconceptions about polio combined with a lack of wheelchair access conspired to make her life miserable.

Currier said she couldn't use the high school swimming pool or go to slumber parties because others feared that polio was contagious. Worse, she couldn't attend school assemblies or graduate with her class because there was no access for her wheelchair. "If I had to sit in the aisles I was considered a fire hazard," she said.

While legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 has removed many of these barriers, it is still hard to locate a public stable that will let children with disabilities ride horses. This inspired Currier to create a ranch for people with disabilities and to form a traveling petting zoo to tell them about it.

Cindy Davila of Santa Maria discovered Rancho de los Animales on the Internet after being turned away from stable after stable in the South County. She was determined to find an activity that her disabled 5-year-old daughter, Christina, and Christina’s 8-year-old able-bodied brother, Lorenzo, could share. They ride at the Rancho twice a week.

"Hi Daddy!" Christina screams at her father, Edward, every time she circles the ring, waving frantically. Christina has no trouble talking or taking in information. But sometimes she takes in too much and goes into uncontrollable movements. Cindy said Christina is on a strict regimen of both physical and occupational therapy. Coupled with school, these activities make a full and difficult schedule for the little girl. Riding at the Rancho "is a good break from all her stresses," she said.

Even if public boarding stables allow disabled riders to mount, Dena Sherry, president of PET in SLO, thinks it isn't a good environment. For seven years, after circumstances changed at the private Edna Valley ranch that had originally accommodated it, PET was forced to use a public boarding stable.

"Riders with special needs must be very safety-aware. There can't be any dogs around that might suddenly spook the horse. There can't be any distractions, such as loud trucks, that might cause the students to stop paying attention," she said. PET is a member of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, or NAHRA, and follows its guidelines.

Recently PET was able to return to the ranch where it began. This is where Sherry now spends most of her time.

Although the land is not hers, she tends it carefully, leading the horses to different pastures, picking up branches a freak windstorm had torn from the oaks, and painting the riding arena fences.

One of the gentle blonde horses munching grass nearby is her own. It is a Norwegian Fjord, an ideal breed for disabled riders, said Sherry. She walks to the gate and calls it over.

Sherry is petite and lean, muscular and sun-kissed. Expertly reaching for the bridle, she looks as if she has always trained horses. But Sherry grew up as a beach girl. She didn't know anything about horses until 10 years ago, when the happiest two years of her life flip-flopped and became the saddest. It was then that she learned there was a reason that her beautiful little girl, Jana, wasn't walking at 15 months. She had cerebral palsy.

"Cerebral" refers to the brain and "palsy" to a disorder of

movement or posture or in communicating. Thanks to PET, Jana learned to ride before she could walk. At first, Sherry watched proudly from a fence rail. Soon she began riding too. "Riding is something we can do together," she said.

Sherry credits riding for strengthening Jana's abdominal muscles and her posture. But more than that, she said, "It's uplifting. There is a sense of power. The emotional benefits are huge, and the payoff is in self-confidence."

Jana began walking three months later. Now, at age 10, she plays on her school’s soccer team. But her first love is riding–and now it’s her mother's love too.

PET riders range in age from 3 to 53, Sherry said. Like Rancho de los Animales, PET accommodates people who are dealing with all sorts of disabilities, including Down syndrome, mental retardation, stroke, autism, and blindness. Some people are learning-disabled. Both programs have miniature horses, to the delight of shy children, and little people.

"The miniatures are small enough so they can learn to groom–they can get their hands all the way around them."

Both Currier and Sherry said their organizations need volunteer ranch hands. They also welcome offers of horses. Every horse is evaluated very carefully. They must be gentle and obedient, and they must have the power to heal. Æ

Telephone numbers:

Rancho de los Animales for the Disabled: 805-489-4751

Partners in Equestrian Therapy (PET): (805) 544-4265

Horse and Rider Together (HART): 467-2606 and 467-3992

New Times reporter Anne Quinn is practicing on a rocking horse before she tries the real thing. She can be e-mailed with story ideas or comments at [email protected].