Therapeutic riding facility expands to Dallas, prepares for gala next month

Jarren McTee of Farmersville has a contagious smile that shines brightest when he’s in the saddle.

Lying on his stomach, the 6-year-old pushes up with his arms and lifts his head high to watch his attendants sing their rendition of “Old McDonald” to keep his attention. As they lead his horse around the arena, his mom, Jenger, looks on, cheering with each passing loop.

“From day one, he was never scared. He has a pretty big startle reflex but horses have not once scared him, he’s never been worried,” she said.

The McTee family had tried different forms of therapy to help combat Jarren’s hypoxia and encephalopathy, conditions that confined him to a wheelchair. Since he started his hour-long, once-a-week hippotherapy sessions at Equest in Wylie three years ago, however, milestones have occurred – vocalizations and increased muscle strength, mostly – developments Jenger said she could not find anywhere else.

“When he came to us he was like a month-old infant,” said Cindy Thomas, Jarren’s physical therapist at Equest. “He had to be laid down on a mat, he could not hold his head up, he was unable to sit alone. Now not only does he enjoy the horse and with the horse has regained trunk control, he’s also riding an Amtrak and steering it.”

Located at 3800 Troy Road, Equest serves clients ranging in ages 2 to 68 from Collin, Dallas and Rockwall counties with help from hundreds of volunteers.

The nonprofit riding center was founded 31 years ago by Susan Schwartz, who realized the effects horses had on a few children living with Cerebal Palsy. Those who have seen it in action believe horse therapy has ways of expanding the world of possibilities for those living with disabilities, said Linda Kordek, director of development.

“The warmth of the horse and the gait of the horse mimics that of the human gait,” Kordek said. “It loosened up their bodies, their legs [were]extended, they sat up [and] started looking around, and Susan said, ‘Wow, if this happens in 30 minutes imagine if we did it for an hour a week,’ and that’s how Equest got started.”

Despite its nontraditional qualities, the hands-on aspects of hippotherapy have proven to help individuals reconnect with and utilize dulled or diminished sensory and motor skills so often taken for granted, said Susan Liepens, Equest registrar.

Even something as simple as breathing can pose difficulty for someone with limited mobility, she explained. The movement of the horse, however, makes up for that. In addition to its movement, the horse also allows the individual to see the world from eye level as opposed to living it at everyone’s belt buckle.

“Someone in a wheelchair [for instance], their whole internal system doesn’t work properly. It requires gravity to keep your body going,” she said. “In a wheelchair you don’t balance, you don’t have that. But on a horse, you do. All the stuff they don’t get in the chair, they get on the horse.”

Facilities like Equest are governed by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsmanship International, which acts as a global authority for equine-assisted activities and therapies.

With services ranging from hippotherapy to vaulting and Special Olympics participation, Equest is considered one of the top three equine-assisted therapy programs in world, CEO Patrick Bricker said.

Bricker said he “became a believer” after bringing his son to a session. Many staff members at Equest are parents of special needs children and have experienced the program’s benefits firsthand. The results, Bricker said, have a lot to do with the fact that working with a horse is much more fun than being in a doctor’s office.

“The medical community, universally, does not embrace it 100 percent. A lot of hospitals categorically reject anything that competes with the status quo,” he said. “But you can’t dispute the results. We’ve had people literally take their first steps and speak their first words here at Equest as a result of a horse, that’s a fact. There’s no doubt that it works, and we take it very seriously.”

Equest recently began taking its show on the road with the addition of two miniature horses, Tex and Sugar, who serve as ambassadors and are taken to schools and nursing homes to spread the word on the benefits of therapeutic horsemanship.

“It’s about relationship building and trust,” Bricker said. “There’s a physical and a mental aspect of it. But the mental part of it is developing a relationship with a horse, which is complex. But it [can be] easier for someone because it’s a horse, it’s not judgmental.”

With the groundbreaking of its second facility at Texas Horse Park in south Dallas scheduled for June, Equest has kicked off its capital campaign in hopes of raising $1 million to help cover start up and operating costs for the new facility. The campaign also hopes to build a covered arena and upgrade its stalls at the Wylie location.

The Triple Crown Gala on April 20 at Park Lane Ranch in Dallas is an integral part in reaching that goal and will feature live demonstrations by horses, riders and staff, as well as live and silent auctions and an acoustic performance by country singer Collin Raye.

For information about Equest and its upcoming gala, visit equest.org.

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