Therapeutic riding benefits widely felt

Nearly 18 years ago, after four months of paperwork and a hiatus for the Chinese New Year, which apparently lasts a month in Taiwan, Pat Appleton got her baby, Amy. She knew immediately something was wrong, but not what and, to be honest, she still doesn’t have that answer. Amy, who is developmentally delayed, came with no medical history and has no diagnosis. But she does have a passion much like many young girls: riding. Amy and Pat travel from their Sussex Borough home to Borderland Farms every Thursday afternoon for a half-hour riding lesson taught by Judy Lalley, a therapeutic riding instructor and owner of Phoenix Therapeutic Riding out of Borderland. . Though mostly non-verbal, Amy has no trouble communicating her excitement when she enters the arena. Her mother says she “nags me all week until Thursday” by making reining motions with her arms. Not capable of American Sign Language, Amy has created her own signs and gets her point across. More reserved, but obviously equally happy about the prospect of a lesson is Byron, a 37-year-old stealth Appaloosa with shaggy white hair and a calm demeanor. Amy needs a little help mounting, but once she’s on Byron, the two move as one. It’s difficult to believe that Amy had to be taught to say “walk on” and “whoa” by Judy since she says them loud and clear today. “The first thing she learned was `walk on’ and she said it for a week,” Pat laughed. On a more serious note, she spoke of Amy’s increased maturity, cooperation and independence since riding was added to her education 18 months ago. Amy attends High Point Regional High School and her teachers have all commented the same things to Pat. Ironically, Pat was afraid of horses until coming to the stable every week, she admitted. Amy had no fear, although she was reluctant “for the first 10 minutes.” Now she obviously loves the feel of Byron’s easy gait under her and especially enjoys his fast walk around the ring. “For someone who can’t really move, that’s got to be a thrill,” Pat said, noting Amy gets stronger every week and has better balance: “She can right herself if she starts to fall and has less trouble climbing stairs or in and out of bed.” The class bears little resemblance to a standard riding class. At least one volunteer must walk along side and most times Judy has two assistants. Virginia Martin, owner of Borderland and an expert in therapeutic riding, rigged up tennis balls on the reins so Amy would know where to grab them. “There is a lot of adaptive equipment in therapeutic riding,” Pat noted. While she rides, Amy is handed objects by Judy and her assistants, in this lesson, Leslie Close and Natasha Zhivkovich. She tosses two Beanie Babies into a basket or picks them out of an inverted cone and places them in again. These activities are why three people is an optimum number, Pat said. Amy is an expert at starting and stopping Byron and is learning to stand in the stirrups. “I’m surprised what she’s capable of,” her mother admitted. “Amy won two blues and a yellow at New Jersey Horse Park in Allentown,” Pat said. “Judy brought two of her kids, but we didn’t expect to win anything. But Amy remembered everything, she liked the audience, she liked the judges. And it was a real competition, not like the Special Olympics where everyone gets a ribbon.” Byron is also an award winner, having been named “Therapeutic Horse of the Year” in 2000 by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, Lalley added. Amy demonstrated she likes having an audience during her lesson by smiling at the photographer. Pat had seen stories about therapeutic riding on television and in magazine and, “when we moved up to the country, I Googled it and found Judy.” Lalley has been involved with therapeutic riding for 11 years. She has a degree in animal science with a concentration in equine which taught her to teach riding and train horses. After 18 months of working at the university, she returned to New Jersey where she taught riding at a stable .”But I knew horses are more than an expensive toy. I knew they have more meaning.” Since she loved working with the riders as much as the horses, Lalley looked into therapeutic riding and hippotherapy. Hippotherapy uses the horse as a therapy tool. “Therapeutic riding adapts to the special needs of the rider.” Occupational, physical and speech therapists use horses in some of their work, but Lalley approaches her mission as creating and improve riding skills. When she began working in therapeutic riding, Lalley noted, there wasn’t much structure. She just had to demonstrate she could teach a safe equestrian lesson to a disabled person. Today there are three levels of certification through the NARHA. Training is available in working with the physically or cognitively handicapped or both and colleges with equine majors, such as Centenary in nearby Hackettstown, offer programs in therapeutic riding, Lalley said. She said hippotherapy may have been a forerunner of therapeutic riding. As with guide dogs for the blind, horses used in therapy came out of Germany as a way of caring for war wounded. It came to the U. S. in 1975 and Martin became an innovator, Lalley said. She was pleased to move her operation to Martin’s farm where she also gives lessons to non-handicapped individuals. After the lesson, Amy and Pat gave Byron a treat, and Pat proved she has benefited from therapeutic riding as well by putting the biscuit on the flat of her hand for him to eat, not afraid at all.