A Smoother Ride

Posted June 24, 2011

Samantha Hollis-White rides Forever Ali, an Arabian horse assigned to her for equine-assisted therapy. Photo by Mark Rikard

SITTING HIGH ATOP Forever Ali, a white Arabian, Samantha Hollis-White looks majestic. She’s 16 years old. Her hands gently hold the horse’s reigns, her body leans forward, and even before her voice rises above the sound of hooves on the dirt floor of the arena, Ali seems to sense what Samantha wants him to do.

“Come on. Trot. Trot.”

Ali’s legs pick up the pace, and Samantha smiles.

“I like it when the horse runs,” she says, “because I can’t.”

To even mount Ali, Samantha needs someone to push her leg over the horse and help guide her on the animal’s back until she catches her balance. She has cerebral palsy and requires canes to walk. But once on Ali’s back, Samantha looks just like any other rider.

“This is the one time when disabilities seem to disappear,” says Kathleen Claybrook, executive director of Special Equestrians, Inc., a program that provides therapeutic riding lessons to adults and children diagnosed with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, traumatic injuries, and many other physical and behavioral disorders. The center is located on the Indian Springs campus in Shelby County, just south of Birmingham, and is recognized as a Premier Accredited Center through the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association.

Special Equestrians offers once-weekly sessions for nine weeks in the spring and fall and four weeks in the summer. Each class has six students who have some form of physical, emotional, or cognitive disability. The center also offers special programs, such as camps and drill teams.

Kathleen is the only full-time staff member. The center also employs two office workers and a groundskeeper and more than 200 volunteers serve primarily as side-walkers or horse-handlers and care for the 11 horses in the center’s stables. They also feed the horses, clean stalls, clean tack, and help maintain the facility grounds. Volunteers are required to go through a training program to learn about horse behavior, disabilities and effective communication, as well as how to create a safe environment for the riders and themselves.

Kelly Johnson began volunteering in 2009 as a side-walker—a person who walks with the horse to help the rider stay balanced and hear instruction. She grew up on a 30-acre farm riding horses, so that job was a natural fit. From her perspective, one of the best things about working there is giving back to the kids. “To see their smiles and how excited they are about the horses and their accomplishments is so rewarding,” she says.

Equine-assisted therapy offers benefits that are particularly helpful to individuals with special needs. “Horses’ hips move in the same three-dimensional movements as a human’s. It’s like walking with training wheels,” Kathleen says. “When a horse moves, all that movement is transmitted to our riders.” Every time the horse takes a step, riders must move their hips from side to side and forward and backwards. They also have to rotate to keep balance or to direct the horse to canter, trot, or stop.  Incorporating strength, stretching, and agility exercises while the rider is on the horse reinforces this physical training.

But the emotional connection that is developed between the horse and special needs rider is like no other.

“It’s very cool to me, how a horse just knows,” Samantha says. “I’ve been with Ali since second grade, and he’s a very ornery horse. But with me he seems to calm down. We’re connected in that way. If I’m thinking of going one way, he responds to it. I think, ‘slow down,’ and my hands react, and he reads that and slows down. It’s really cool.”

That connection appears enhanced in riders with autism, like 12-year-old Matthew Wilkinson. “Communication is one of the areas Matthew struggles with,” says Matthew’s mother, Trumi. But when he rides, Matthew’s eyes are trained on the course, and his movements are fluid. He guides his horse through the arena almost effortlessly. “Riding has really helped him focus and follow directions,” Trumi says. “It’s given him self confidence and fostered his independence. It’s just given him a lot.”

It also gives these special riders a type of freedom they don’t usually get to experience.

“I compensate for running by using my canes to sort of skip,” Samantha says. “But on a horse, it’s so much better. I feel that wind and that rush when he’s going so fast. It’s incredible. I like to go faster and faster and faster. Ali likes to trot anyway, so we have that connection. He feels that excitement in me, and he goes faster, but I have to slow him down.

“I don’t think I could have gotten this experience anywhere else,” she adds. “This is such a fabulous program, and I’m really glad I found it.”

KELLY JOHNSON is an associate with Regions.

For more information about Special Equestrians, please visit www.specialequest.org.

Everyone has a story.