July 12, 2013 · 0 Comments
Every Wednesday for the past 27 years, the Simcoe County Carriage Driving for the Disabled [SCCDD] program at Thorah Farm in Essa has been offering therapeutic riding for adults, youth and children with special needs and the tradition is still running strong.
Sue Mott, owner of Thorah farms and organizer of SCCDD, said the idea came from her love of driving horses and being able to help other people be involved as well.
“I’ve been driving since I was little and there was this really large competition and it was at that show that someone put on a demonstration of driving for the disabled and they were asking for people that were interested, so I volunteered and couple other gentlemen volunteered and basically I continued my program here,” she said. “It’s just my love of driving.”
However, she recognizes that therapeutic riding is on a different level.
“It began in England and at the time they only dealt with physically handicapped, but then I saw that children with Down’s syndrome, autism and people with cognitive delays and how it helped them, so I opened it up to include them as well,” she explained.
Starting at 6 p.m. every Wednesday night, each participant and volunteer go through a series of exercises that includes grooming and prepping the ponies. They then drive a course in a cart, where the participants have a set of reins practicing their skills at driving the ponies, on a marked course.
After the ride, those able bodied, help with walking the ponies, getting hay for the stalls or cleaning the tack.
“It’s a social thing too. They don’t just come, drive and go home, they have to understand what’s involved in looking after everything as well,” Mott said. “And it also gets the parents and siblings participating. Often the siblings will help out and we train them to be a part of the program as well.”
Parents and family of the athletes are obviously seeing the benefits as well, as the program as seen a 100 per cent return rate for the past four years.
“We’ve been really pleased,” said Mott. “It increases balance, strength, eye-hand coordination, we also teach the children with cognitive delays who don’t know their letters, numbers or their left from right and we work on that as well. We work on speech because they have to be able to talk to the horses. For the autistic children it has a really sensory benefit so that they can feel coat and breath of the horse and that’s really good for them as well.”
Sharon Wice has been bringing her daughter Maria to Thorah farms for three years and said the program is exactly what her daughter needed.
“When the kids reach 21 they’re out of school and there aren’t a lot of adult programs around, so we were lucky enough to get her into alternatives in Toronto for three days a week, but they also need something to stimulate them too,” she said.
“They need to be amongst their peers. Maria has been coming out for three years and the positive gains she has achieved have been tremendous.”
Wice said when Maria first started she had to be helped up into the cart by two men, now she is stepping up on a little stool and knows where to put her hands to get up. She has also learned her right from her left – something she needs to know for driving – by using coloured bands on her wrists.
And of course the program would not be as successful if not for its group of loyal and hardworking volunteers.
Elizabeth Brandon got involved with the program through a former co-worker who was once a volunteer driver. Even though her friend has moved, Brandon has still stayed to help out.
“I started on the board in 2003 and I’ve been coming out since the summer of 2004,” she said. “I don’t have a lot of involvement with the horses per se, but I really enjoy the athletes and to watch them learn and progress and come out of their shell. If you see them when they start and even at the end of their first year, the difference is amazing. For some of them it takes longer, but just that little improvement is amazing.
“It’s the upper body strength that I really notice. It’s got all kinds of components. We teach them as much as they can learn and we try and pace it for them.”
Longtime volunteer Jenny Brooksbank said the program has taught her so much over years.
“I love working with the kids and the ponies, it’s always a learning thing each week,” she said.
“Everything I know about driving, I have learnt through this program. We start off as volunteers and then we learn how to do heading and have someone assist the kids up and off. We always have someone that is with them to assist them and we’ve got good control over the horse.”
Throughout the year, the SCCDD holds a series of events to fundraise for the program, including a golf tournament, a ball hockey tournament, selling flowers in the spring and poinsettias at Christmas. This helps with the cost of the ponies, rent and tack. They are also under the umbrella of the Ontario Federation of Cerebral Palsy.
“We have done really well. We have found that the community is extremely supportive,” Mott said.
For more information contact Sue Mott at 705-424-0627
By Jeff Doner