Since prehistoric times, humans have always had a special relationship with animals. It is this relationship which produced the domestication of dogs, cats, horses, etc. The earliest record of riding therapy was recorded in ancient Greece in 600 BC. In 1875, the French physician Cassaign wrote that riding therapy was helpful in certain neurological conditions by improving posture, balance, joint movements, and also noted psychological benefits. The British began using riding as therapy for wounded soldiers during WWI. Therapeutic horseback riding came to the United States and Canada in 1960 with the formation of The Community Association of Riding for the Disabled. This form of physical therapy has developed its own name, Hippotherapy.
SMART’s facility is located on route 675, ten miles east of Interstate 75. After turning in at the SMART sign and continuing on a small dirt road for a quarter of a mile, I came upon a large open field with a riding arena. Sitting on benches under the trees next to the arena were the families of riders who were participating in the program. Gail Clifton, the Volunteer Executive Director of Programs, met me at the gate of the arena for my prearranged interview and tour.
She explained that our own association, SMART, began in 1987 as an offshoot of a local riding school. The program began with twenty riders and has grown to two hundred and there is a list of thirty individuals waiting to enter the program. Seventy-five to eighty percent of the riders are children. The number of participants is limited by the number of volunteers. At the present time there is only one full-time employee, Janet Parks, the program director, and forty full-time volunteers and an ever-changing number of part-time volunteers.. Most volunteers give twenty to thirty hours a week to the association. Hunsader Farm has given the association a 33-acre cost free lease on their property.
Despite having clients with a whole host of problems, I believe this place vies with Disney World as being the happiest place on earth. Happiness is seen in Gail’s smile and heard in her voice as she started the tour. The same demeanor was seen in other volunteers’ faces and in the look on some of the rider’s faces.
Riding therapy is more than a one hour pony ride. It is a process that starts with introducing the child to the horse and learning how to care for the animal by grooming. This begins the bonding process between horse and rider. Each rider gets the same horse every week.
After the introductory phase, a riding instructor is assigned and the individual is placed on a horse accompanied by two side rider volunteers. Records are kept on each rider as they progress through the various skill levels. Despite the fact that all riders have severe handicaps there has never been a serious injury.
The first place on the tour was the tack room, a place where saddles and riding equipment are stored. Gail pointed out that the room was originally an old truck trailer. Volunteers cut a large hole in the side and mounted two horizontally sliding doors to provide easy access and ventilation. In the tack room, I met a ten-year old volunteer, Laura Tambone. Laura said that her parents enrolled her in the program at the age of five because she suffered from seizures. The seizures abated when she was nine years old. Laura felt that the riding therapy helped her so much that she wants to help others by training to be a volunteer. Her mother is also a volunteer riding instructor.
The next stop was a stable where I was introduced to a special horse named Magic. This horse has much in common with the riders, it too has a handicap. Magic is blind. He had both eyes removed because of equine uveitis. His owner, Jodi (Lynn) McBrien, trained him to respond to voice and hand pressure. Lynn says Magic has developed a sixth sense, he senses things that are on either side of him. Needless to say when Lynn offered to donate a blind horse for therapy riding, proof was needed that the horse was fit for the job. Lynn demonstrated Magic’s abilities and was followed by Gail riding the horse. Magic was accepted into the program. Lynn McBrien is a professor of education at USF.
In another stall was a Percheron. Percherons are large horses that are used for pulling carriages. Carriages are used for those riders who are too heavy or too immobile to be placed on a horse. The horse and carriage was donated by the Lakewood Ranch Rotary Club.
On the way to our next destination, we met Samantha Toomey. She joined SMART in 2003 as a Saturday volunteer having no experience with horses. Within a year she took and passed the examinations to become a certified volunteer riding instructor and eventually became the barn manager. She even took a horse home with her for two months to give round the clock care for an eye infection. For her extraordinary dedication, she received the Volunteer of the Year award.
My next introduction was to a slight shy smiling nineteen-year old girl named Mallory Schmidt. She was in an electric wheel and about to be placed on her horse. Mallory’s story is a story of her personal triumph and the triumph of the staff and horses at SMART.
Mallory was a premature baby who was born with cerebral palsy. This disease causes some muscles to be spastic and extreme weakness in other muscles. Her legs were scissored or crossed at the ankles. Additionally, she was mentally challenged. The American Disabilities Act allows for early education with disabilities. Mallory began preschool and riding therapy at the age of three and continued for five years at which time funding became unavailable for riding therapy, only special education. It was also at this time she endured three operations to relieve the scissoring of her legs. Her mother was told that she would never walk.
Since she was confined to a wheel chair she lost strength in her core muscles and was constantly slumped to one side looking at the floor. She became socially withdrawn and would not make eye contact even when placed in an upright position.
When Mallory was fourteen her mother, a pediatric social worker, discovered SMART and immediately enrolled her in the program. According to Mallory’s mother, Gail realized that Malloy’s legs needed stretching and began therapy by gently put her on a larger horse to facilitate stretching.
Hours of riding therapy gradually had its effect. Mallory’s posture improved to the point that she could support her body in an upright position. In the upright position she now began making eye contact, her social skills and speech began to improve. Looking down at the world from her perch on top of a tall horse gave her self confidence. Overall strength improved to the point that with the aid of a walker she was able to walk across the stage on May 31, 2008 and get her special education high school diploma.
She is now working on her next goal of walking without the aid of a walker. She is training for this by walking in a harness on a treadmill. Without her family’s support, the knowledge and love of the staff, and the special bonding that exists between humans and animals, none of this would have occurred.
The staff at SMART accomplishes everything with sixteen horses and countless hours of volunteers’ time, within a budget of $150,000 a year. Funds come from fees, grants, state aid, and donations. The largest single donor was the Lakewood Ranch Women’s Club which donated $10,000.
SMART has just started an outreach program called Horses for Heroes which will provide riding therapy for our wounded soldiers.
The real story of SMART lies not only in the statistics, not only in the therapy process, but in the selfless dedication of volunteers and the healing power of horses working together to improve the lives of the mentally and physically challenged.
More can be learned at their website smartriders.org