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Monday February 28, 2000
Top: (From left) Rachel Dixon, Kansas City high school student, Dave Proxel, Omaha, Neb., junior, and Sarah Curry, Omaha, Neb., junior, share a laugh with 7-year-old Sean Varner. Sean, who has cerebral palsy, rides horses once a week for therapeutic reasons.
Above: Prokels, Curry and a Serenata Farms employee help Sean, of Topeka mount his horse, Funny. Photos by Carolyn Mollett/KANSAN.
S
Evan Varner's tiny laugh echoes across the sand of the riding arena at Serenata Farms. While "his" horse, a Welsh pony named Furry, treats her bearly dogs go
Serenate Farms School of Equestrian Arts provides therapeutic horseback riding for people of all ages who have physical or mental disabilities. Bud and Marti Newell founded the operation in 1993.
Nice Punny, frots, he dangly lets go of the saddle horn every so often to push his little green helmet up from in front of his eyes.
"We wanted to do something that would grab us by the heart," Bud said. "We wanted to make a difference."
Like any other 7-year-old, Sean is missing a few baby teeth. He wears blue jeans and sneakers and seems happy and carefree. But unlike most children, Sean has cerebral palsy. He is riding for therapy, as much as fun.
Some KU students make a weekly 30-minute drive to volunteer at the 240-acre farm at Big Springs, an unincorporated town on U.S. Highway 40 between Lawrence and Topeka.
Therapeutic riding: how it works
Pamela Botts, associate director of counseling and psychological services at KU, said the physical aspect of riding was important, but the unique combination of physical and psychological benefits also got the riders to develop trust with the horse, other people and themselves.
Bud agreed that the therapy gave physical benefits as well as emotional empowerment. Physically disabled clients may not be able.*
The kinds of conditions and disabilities helped by therapeutic riding.
- Amputations
- Autism
- Brain injuries
- Cardiovascular accident/stroke
- Cerebral palsy
- Down syndrome
- Emotional disabilities
- Hearing impairments
- Learning disabilities
- Mental retardation
- Multiple sclerosis
- Muscular dystrophy
- Post polio speech impairments
- Spina bifida
- Spinal cord injuries
- Visual impairments
Source: North American Riding for the Handicapped Association
run and play like other children, but the chance to ride a horse can make them feel special.
"All their lives, they've sat in a wheelchair looking up, but on therapy night, they sit on a horse and look down." Bud said.
Sean's mother,
Joyce Varner,
Topeka resident, said
she agreed. She said
Sean couldn't play
sports like his
brother.
"But he can come out here," she said. Research has shown that the rhythmic motion atop a horse helps improve balance, flexibility and muscle strength for
"When you ride a horse, it's the only therapy known to man that exercises every muscle from the pelvic girdle to the base of your skull at the same time," Bud said. "There's no other tool made that does that."
physically disabled riders who may be unable to walk normally on their own.
Psychological benefits come from contact with the horse as well as the rest of the rider's surroundings (the sights, the sounds, volunteers, staff, family and peers). These factors help increase clients' confidence, patience and self-esteem.
Sarah Keller, Pratt sophomore, said she had seen the benefits of the therapy first-hand from volunteering at the farm.
"With a lot of kids, it teaches them to be responsible for something else so they can be
responsible for themselves." she said
Marti said volunteers were essential in forming a "therapy team" for each client, because socializing was just as important as the ride itself. She said the therapy was more effective if supportive people surrounded the client, including consistent volunteers.
Serenata Farms volunteer David Proksel, Omaha, Neb., junior, said he agreed. Children were often shy and unresponsive at first, Proksel said, but after a few weeks of therapy they recognized their volunteers and became more comfortable.
A team of volunteers: 'something that's meaningful'
"Some of them are really scared of people, and they don't like strangers at all," Keller said. "But having the horse there is kind of like a medium between you and the kids."
When a client rides at Serenata Farms, there are three volunteers with them all the time. Two "sidewalkers" stay on either side
In traditional horsemanship, horses are trained to respond to physical cues. The rider uses the reins and a bit in the horse's mouth to guide and stop the horse. A nudge or kick to the horse's flank signal it to walk.
of the horse to make sure the rider stays on. The "horse handler" leads the horse with a rope
But the rider still has an important job.
The horses at Serenata Farms are trained to respond to verbal cues instead. Because many riders do not have complete control of their legs and arms, it would be easy for the horse to misinterpret their movements. So the rider is in charge of saying "whoa" or "walk on." In cases where the rider can't speak, such as an autistic child, the horse handler translates.
Several Kansas universities have student internship programs available in conjunction with Serenata Farms. The University of Kansas doesn't have any formal programs, but some KU students volunteer there on
their own.
"The volunteers derive a real sense of doing something that's meaningful here," Marti said.
A satisfied client
RoAn Rangel brings her 12-year-old son, Corey, to weekly riding sessions at Serenata Farms. She said the commute from their home in Spring Hill was definitely worth the time.
"I know that when we get in the car and come out here, he gets excited," Rangel said. Corey was born with a rare chromosomal disorder called Pallister/Killan syndrome. Symptoms associated with the disability include extremely low muscle tone and mental retardation.
There are many things Corey will never do, Rangel said, but the goal is for him to control his muscles the best that he can. At Serenata Farms, Corey's tasks include sitting up on his own, holding onto the saddle horn, holding his head up and responding to basic instructions—all on horseback.
Rangel said Corey responded more to riding at Serenata Farms than any other therapy they had tried.
"This is the most motivated that I've ever seen him than with any of the other therapy." Rangel said. "I've seen more gains in a shorter period of time."
Proving results: still a challenge
People who are in the arena each week agree that it's easy to see improvement in the clients. But right now, the results are only measurable to eyewitnesses.
The Newell's next challenge is to evaluate the therapy's results and present data for medical professionals. Serenata Farms is in the process of setting up studies, with physical therapists on site to measure progress.
"Our role and our mission is to develop outcome studies that report the results that are measurable." Bud said.
"The therapy that you receive on horseback, as a treatment and not as a recreational modality, seems to gather quick results in almost all indications." Bud said.
He said many people still did not believe in therapeutic riding as a legitimate form of therapy.
Though horseback riding may not be widely prescribed, the idea of using horses in therapy has been around for a while. The first centers for therapeutic riding in North America began operating in the 1960s.
Still some physical therapists perceive the program as competition, instead of supplementary therapy, Bud said.
The price of therapy isn't cheap. It costs $85 a person for an hour of riding therapy.
Rangel said that without official documentation of the medical benefits of riding, insurance providers would not pay for the therapy.
Varner said she had experienced the same problem, so Sean's physical therapist observed him riding at Serenata Farms. Varner said she boped the therapist would be able to make reports that could persuade their insurance company to pay for Sean's therapy.
When the riding session is finished, Sean wheels himself out of the arena and into the handicap-accessible stall where Funny is waiting for some oats. He gets to hold the feed pan in his lap while the horse eats.
No one seems in a hurry to leave. When it is time to go, Sean takes off his helmet and stashes it in a cubby to use again next time — only a week away.