THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 24, 1994 TAG: 9406230156
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK DUROSE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: 940624 LENGTH: Long
Now the stable is struggling to keep kids with special needs in the saddle. So the non-profit owners are asking the community to help by ``adopting'' the horses.
{REST} Equi-Kids Therapeutic Riding Program teaches children with mental and physical limitations how to ride horses as a form of physical therapy and mental disciplining. The program began expanding last month to include seriously disabled adults as well.
But that expansion, coupled with increased costs and the use of a mostly volunteer staff, have brought on a predicament familiar to non-profit organizations: the need for more financial support from the community.
The program now serves about 40 riders. But there is a yearlong waiting list of 70 people, said Barbara ``Barbie'' Ford, executive director and founder of the local Equi-Kids program, based in Pungo.
The group's approach is called ``Adopt-A-Horse.'' It allows interested people to make a tax-deductible contribution of $5 or more to the program to help defray the costs of maintaining and feeding the animals. In return, patrons receive adoption certificates, and photographs of the adopted horse or engraved plagues, depending on the level of support.
``It's like you're foster parenting a horse,'' says Debbie Dear, a volunteer and member of the Equi-Kids Board who has been riding for three years. The adoption program was Dear's idea - she wants the program to grow and reach other children like her own.
The first time Dear's daughter, Lindsey, visited the stables, ``it took six grown men to get her on the horse,'' said Dear. ``Now it's her life. All her motor skills have improved, and so has her balance and her attitude. How can you argue with results like that?
``She screamed about the horses at first. Now she has a picture of Princess on her wall.''
The program serves children with limitations ranging from attention-deficit hyperactive disorder to cerebral palsy.
``It takes kids out of a sterile, medical environment and brings them into nature so they can be around life,'' said Shawn McCarren, another board member and new instructor. ``A horse is a lot warmer than some piece of metal machinery in a hospital.''
Princess, an Appaloosa, is the oldest of the five horses. Princess, Rondel and Poncho are owned outright by Equi-Kids. All the horses served in other roles before joining the program. Rondel, for example, was a performing trick-pony, Ronald a show horse. ``Adopt-A-Horse'' donations will help the program purchase Ronald and Apron Strings, now on loan, and possibly other horses.
The contributions ``will help pay for feed and veterinary care, and for us to grow,'' said executive director Ford. ``We have to buy saddles and equipment. Also, we can expand and meet the needs of the kids.''
Ford admits that, financially, the board has struggled to keep the program alive. ``For a while,'' she says, ``we tried to make it on our own. But we realized we need to ask for help.''
The program itself is a result of Ford's attempt to respond to increasing needs of children in the community.
``I was teaching in another therapeutic riding program,'' said Ford, ``but we were only open in the spring and summer. Several parents approached me and said that when the kids came back to it, their muscles were atrophied. It was like starting over from scratch. They wanted to know if there was a way to do this year-round. So I asked for their support, and we started Equi-Kids.''
Equi-Kids, which operates 50 weeks each year, is part of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, an internationally recognized program with 450 outfits nationwide. Ford's group also is endorsed by the Therapeutic Riding Association of Virginia, of which she is a past president.
``When we started,'' recalls Ford, ``we had one pony and six kids. Today we have 40 students and about 80 volunteers, but only certified people can teach.''
The $50 fee for a six-week program is about one-fifth the cost of regular riding lessons.
Ford's passion for teaching riding is motivated in part by her own hip injuries and surgeries that have unsaddled her permanently.
``I've been through physical therapy, like a lot of these kids, and it's not fun,'' says Ford. ``There's something about doing it in a cold, sanitary room that makes kids dread it. They know it's going to be painful, that their muscles are going to be stretched and pulled.
``Out here, they don't even know they're doing physical therapy. They're just having fun.''
McCarren, who wrote the brochure for the ``Adopt-A-Horse'' project, plans to use it to approach Virginia Beach businesses in the future.
The program ``started out with the whole-hearted support of the parents, but that's all. Today, it's also people who are interested in what we're trying to do. Fund-raising is essential to expansion.''
Pam Bolt, whose three sons all suffer from a genetic metabolic disorder similar to ADHD, can't ``say enough good things about the program. It's helped my kids be able to focus and feel better about themselves. You can see the change at home and school.''
Joyce Schmidt appreciates the social aspect of the program for her 8-year-old daughter, Katie, who has Down's syndrome.
``These children can't and don't play with other children the way most do,'' said Schmidt. ``This gives them an opportunity to interact and learn with others similiarly challenged, and not feel less than.''
Perhaps most importantly, said Ford, Equi-Kids ``holds out the promise to our kids, and now our adults, that they can do things.
``People look at most of these kids throughout their lives and say, `What's wrong with this child?' Why not, `What's right with this child?' '' by CNB