Video credit: Cheney Slocum, Celina Fontenot and Alexis Chastain.
Article by Cheney Slocum.
When most people think about therapy for the disabled, hours of pain and sweat in white offices, heavy medical equipment and seemingly innocuous beeps comes to mind. Big barns and the smell of horses probably do not even occur to them.
Article by Cheney Slocum.
When most people think about therapy for the disabled, hours of pain and sweat in white offices, heavy medical equipment and seemingly innocuous beeps comes to mind. Big barns and the smell of horses probably do not even occur to them.
But this is exactly what the
Ride On Center for Kids, otherwise known as R.O.C.K., is: therapeutic services
for the disabled that focuses on their students riding. Located in Georgetown, Texas, R.O.C.K.’s
stated mission is to improve “independence and life skills, in partnership with
the horse.” Their stated vision is to be
a “dynamic leader in equine-assisted activities through service, research, and
higher learning.”
They use hippotherapy and
therapeutic riding to help those that live both physical and mental disabilities. Physically, the movements of riding help
individuals improve their balance and strength.
According to Linda Dixon, R.O.C.K.’s Client Relations Director and
Business Manager, instructors will sometimes have their students ride in
different positions, including backward, sideways, and across the saddle,
stomach down. She says riding really
helps to exercise different muscle groups.
However, Dixon also says
that the therapy is also about the student’s relationship with the horse. Heidi Derning, a therapeutic riding
instructor at R.O.C.K., agrees, saying that “the horse is… a mirror to yourself”
and that horses can be very attuned to their riders.
Here at R.O.C.K. this
relationship helps children with physical or cognitive disabilities, kids in
the criminal justice system, children in military families and both active
soldiers and veterans – and R.O.C.K. is looking to expand. Derning explained about a new program that is
possibly in the works that would work with hospice groups and grief programs.
What do the students and
their parents think about R.O.C.K.?
“She loves it. She loves coming here. She’s happy, she feels proud... It’s one of her favorite days of the week. It’s not like when we’re going to go to
another therapy… she doesn’t want to go, she wants to come here,” says Nancy
Guadian, a parent at R.O.C.K., about her daughter, who is a student. Guadian says she encourages other parents “to
take their children to ride” anywhere, but she recommends R.O.C.K.
“Everyone is so patient and
so nice with the kids.”