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Print this pageChange: 3,000 Hoof Beats at a Time
A new facility in Republic is improving the lives of 417-land kids and adults through therapeutic horseback riding.
The horse travels its circuit, walker by its side and a tiny passenger upon its back, moving in rhythm to the hoof beats. It’s part of a process called hippotherapy, changing the rider with every step. Those therapeutic changes are the mission of Dynamic Strides. In its most crude form, you can think of the horse as a medicine ball, a simple therapeutic object. It is more than that though. No therapy gear can change with the natural subtlety, speed and diversity of a ride on horseback. In a 45-minute session—3,000 to 5,000 steps—each hoof beat is a moment of reaction for the passenger.
Hippotherapy can be of great benefit, especially to children suffering from cerebral palsy, stroke, developmental delays, Down syndrome, learning or language disabilities, multiple sclerosis, sensory integrative dysfunction, autism, attention deficit disorders or traumatic brain injury. According to Dynamic Strides Director Marge Cheeseman, when you are dealing with ailments that make it a struggle to develop muscle tone, balance, spatial awareness or even to relax tense, spastic muscles, the rhythm of the horse can be miraculous. “You get movement and strong stimulation for riders,” Cheeseman says. “It is good for a lot of sensory issues, deficits in touch or providing pressure. It stimulates knowing where their body is in space, using the left and right sides of the body. A horse gives all of that.”
Therapy for All
Cheeseman started Dynamic Strides in 2010 because she could see the results of her work, and she could see the demand. Unfortunately, she also saw that health insurance often did not pay for it, so hippotherapy became a luxury often dropped.
“Everybody’s situation is different,” Cheeseman says. “So many are just like everybody, but they have expenses that will not go away that you and I don’t think about. Feeding tubes and diapers and adaptive equipment. I don’t deal with that on a daily basis, but seeing what they go through is amazing. We do what we can to assist them.”
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Cheeseman envisioned a therapy resource that would turn nobody away and set about building Dynamic Strides. She seeks donations and funding, makes room and works with the clients to make sure they can participate.
“It is on my property,” Cheeseman says. “It took us a while to feel we could start this. We are very blessed to have people like our veterinarian who donates much of her service and a man who helps us training these horses. He donates his time. We’ve received some donations of hay. It helps a lot, and we do fundraisers to continue to feed the horses, always looking for ways to fund it.”
Dynamic Strides’ inclusive philosophy helped Rachel Steer, who had tried hippotherapy for her daughter Abby but couldn’t work out the cost. Cheeseman met her at a school fair and encouraged her to bring Abby in to work with Dynamic Strides. “I had kind of given up on hippotherapy, but she told me it was completely donation-based hippotherapy,” Steer says. “I got a call from Marge, and she wanted to get Abby on the books for the next session.”
For Abby, this has meant a regular session of therapy that works and that she is excited about. Steer says finding ways to motivate a child in life-long therapy is key. They just burn out on it. With the horse, Abby starts looking forward to her sessions.
“Abby just loves to go see the chickens,” Steer says. “When Abby does well, she gets to go see Marge’s chickens. She does things I didn’t even know she could do. Week to week you could see her shoulders evening out as strength built up on her weaker side.”
A Community Effort
Cheeseman sees her work as a mission and a calling from God. Her faith keeps her taking risks a for-profit business could not. It all works out, and clients chip in where they can. Some volunteer or donate time. Steer encourages relatives to funnel the birthday money they would have sent Abby into Dynamic Strides. They sell raffle tickets, and they spread the word.
That is what Tiffany Eggleston has done with her daughter Emmalin. The response she sees when Emmalin is on horseback is dramatic. Suffering from low muscle tone, Emmalin’s head pops up straight when she is on the horse. Eggleston is thankful for the service and gives back where she can, like showing up for events. She wants to see Cheeseman succeed.
“When they had the tent sale at PFI and sold raffle tickets, it was a big deal for Marge to be able to show people who it was actually benefiting,” Eggleston says. “They see this as a ministry. She has a full-time job and is going to school as well.”
Dynamic Strides offers two curricula to clients. Hippotherapy is more purely therapeutic and physically oriented, requiring the least skill on the part of the rider. For more advanced riders, Dynamic Strides’ Spirit Horse program offers a more complex environment. Just working with a large, nonverbal animal can increase confidence and raise awareness of nonverbal cues.
A suggested donation for therapy is $20 an hour for Spirit Horse and $45 an hour for hippotherapy. Cheeseman says they are blessed by their volunteers, operating as a full non-profit. So far they haven’t had to turn anyone away.
Melissa Townsley is the Spirit Horse riding instructor and equine manager. She says kids often don’t even realize it is therapy. “The kids seem to love it,” Townsley says. “Horses are intelligent creatures. They are gentle, and they know. They are very in tune with these kids. They know they have to be gentle, and they are sweet.”
The changes this brings can be profound. Tammy Patrick has seen it work with her daughter Rebecca. She has seen Rebecca gain confidence and focus. “She went through the hippotherapy program quickly before graduating to therapeutic riding,” Patrick says. “When she first started she tended to be loud and unfocused. They really worked with her and told her how to be calmer.”
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