therapy Archives - NCEFT National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy

What’s Outside Counts Too

March 5, 2013 by Development Director

Our facility is fundamentally positive. Without forethought or planning we look past life expectancies, prognoses, and symptoms. However, reality sometimes reaches in and shouts for our attention. Last year we shared the story of a little girl fighting for her future (http://nceftspeaks.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/be-worthy/).

She’s been missing lately, consumed with treatments and doctor’s appointments, too tired to climb aboard her horse. Last week her name reappeared on the schedule, stars and hearts decorating the margins around her appointment time. Just after lunch we heard the car door slam, feet barely touching the driveway as she ran for the office door. She breathlessly hugged each of us before dashing off to find her helmet.

She seems so real, so present and full of life that it’s hard to believe she’s anything but perfectly healthy. For a moment we can’t suspend reality and it instead pushes forward full bore, chugging its way down a seemingly immovable track. Then we serpentine and figure eight. She sits sideways and backwards, and finally picks up the reins, steering her horse in a cloverleaf around orange traffic cones. By the time she dismounts and hugs her horse goodbye you’ve found it again. The ability to see a little girl for what she truly is and not the challenges she’s facing.

Our job at NCEFT is to bring about change. Whether physical, cognitive, or emotional, we work each session not to cure but to help. We aren’t treating Down syndrome, Autism, or muscular dystrophy. We’re helping people, children and adults who are more than medical charts, little girls who love horses and will fight tooth and nail to be strong enough to climb the mounting block each week.

Wisdom from Winnie

February 15, 2013 by Development Director

Winnie the Pooh is rarely recognized as a sage advisor, but while digging through pages of quotes on “love” it became evident his sentiments apply beyond the Garanimals crowd.

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh?” he whispered.

“Yes, Piglet?”

“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”

His words, or more accurately the words of author A.A. Milne, cut through the saccharine sweetness of Valentine’s Day and remind us of its true purpose: expressing love for those who make our lives worth living. Romantic, familial, or friendly, it weaves itself into every nook and cranny, impressing upon us the importance of connections. So pervasive is its reach that we sometimes overlook its very presence, failing to notice the small ways in which it shows its face.

Love is the horse that leaves his breakfast to find you at his gate, softly snorting into the palms of your hand as if to say hello. Love is the spontaneous hug of a child who’s pushed past her fears and ridden without help. Love is barn dogs who run to meet you, stickers shared from the mailbox, sisters holding hands, and grandparents who tirelessly give encouragement from our viewing deck.

Though we try to express our love with chalky pastel candies and construction paper hearts, the most poignant declaration is the least obtrusive. Our therapy horses offer steady shoulders to lean on while students learn two-point and calmly accept heads on their rumps when children lay down. They tolerate balls being thrown and countless butterfly clips in their manes. Every day they show their love by simply being there for the children and adults who need them. At NCEFT each hand that reaches out can be sure of them, and of us, a family of volunteers, staff, and donors just waiting to share the love.

Amongst Friends

December 14, 2012 by Development Director

Last Sunday was one of those days where the rain kept its distance, clouds parted, and the sun turned its face towards our facility on Runnymede Road. Staff had been preparing for our annual holiday party all week, wrapping garlands, hanging wreaths, and bravely scaling the roof to plant pointsettias in the second floor window boxes. Santa’s honorary reindeer had been bathed, blanketed, and bedded down in a clean stall, ready to carry in the guest of honor.

The final gift bag had just been placed behind the tree when the first minivan pulled into our parking lot. Soon a steady stream of wheelchairs, walkers, and strollers began pouring in, and it wasn’t long before the once empty tables were groaning beneath platters of mashed potatoes and spinach quiche. Families loaded up paper plates and found seats between friends new and old. Holiday music could be heard through the speakers, choral voices accompanied by the jingling of silver sleigh bells as Jack pulled the carriage around the ring.

The children might tell you the best part was riding shotgun in the Woodside fire truck, or perhaps sitting with Santa and Sebastian, but the parents have something else to say. Again and again they told us this was their party. In a month inundated with invitations, this was often the only event to which they rsvp’d “yes.” Our annual Family Holiday Party was the one place where their kids could not only be themselves, but where “themselves” is just like everyone else. Service dogs lay side by side while their owners took turns petting the horses, and Santa had all the time in the world to talk to a little boy who still believes.

In the words of one Mom, NCEFT is where we can be ourselves.

In Honor

November 12, 2012 by Development Director

I can’t tell you his name or show you a photograph; his identity a secret guarded by the Navy. I don’t have videos of his weekly progress; highlight reels set to carefully timed tracks, the music building until he takes his first steps without help. What I have is a story.

He showed up a few months ago, baseball cap covering the long scar left by a bullet last Christmas. Twenty-six and walking with the help of a VA therapist, he came looking for a way back. Back to being able to hold his son, back to running, back to a life undefined.

Twice a week he makes his way up the mounting block where he stands, arms out, while his physical therapist fastens a gait belt about his waist. His horse waits nearby in the blocks, head lowered and eyes half lidded. He closes the distance in two wavering steps, hands reaching to steady himself upon the saddle horn. He pauses, counting under his breathe, “one, two, three,” and swings his leg over.

Anger, and sadness, and frustration are chipped away by the steady beat of his horse’s hooves. The day comes when he earns a pair of reins. No longer a passenger but a rider capable of choice; left or right, walk or whoa. We head out the double gate and towards the ramp, pausing while he works his feet out of the stirrups. “Maybe it’s the man in me, but having reins was nice. I liked that.” A simple declaration.

He’ll get stronger and begin to ride without a gait belt. He’ll learn to trot and enjoy his first lap of independent riding. His physical gains will be measurable, boxes ticked off on his daily patient chart. On that day we didn’t give him reps. He’s a veteran, and on that day we gave him joy.

You’ve Got the Love

March 10, 2012 by Development Director

As hard as it is for us to acccept, next week will be the final lesson of our first Heroes and Horsemanship Program. Having started in January, riders in this program spent the past seven weeks learning horsemanship at our Woodside facility. We speak for all involved in saying we never realized just how quickly we’d all form new bonds. From the men and women who quickly came to love their horses, to the sidewalkers and leaders who became invested in their veteran’s progress, we grew more attached to the weekly lessons than any of us could have imagined.

Though next week will be bittersweet, we can spend this week just soaking up the good. The plum trees are blooming, the horses’ sleek summer coats are coming in, and life’s never looked so good from the back of a horse.

What’s Outside Counts Too

What’s Outside Counts Too

Wisdom from Winnie

Amongst Friends

In Honor

You’ve Got the Love

Video- Heroes and Horsemanship: Week 7

NCEFT: HORSES. HOPE. HEALING.

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