Stability Can be Found Among Horses

Story and photos by Andrea Haines

Joan is the Founder, Executive Director, and Vision Keeper of ROSES (Rose of Sharon Equestrian School) in Glen Arm, Maryland — a 90 percent volunteer-operated program for children, youth, adults, and senior citizens with special needs. “We serve individuals in all age groups,” she explains. “When we began, we served mainly children with physical disabilities. As time went on, we began to see more students with autism, behavioral issues, and social/emotional needs with many having multiple diagnoses.”

This fall, ROSES is preparing to celebrate their 20-year anniversary of serving their community. “We have a Board of Directors, a team of dedicated volunteers, a part-time barn manager, and part-time stable hand,” Joan explains. “Our barn manager, Connor Bayley, is a graduate student at New York University (NYU) in the mental health and wellness program. She hopes to become a counselor utilizing equine assisted therapy with her clients.”

Joan began her work with horses at age 11 in Massachusetts, working in barns, stables, and day camps caring for and exercising horses. “It was during my teen years as an equine-camp counselor where I began to see what powerful changes horses could facilitate in peoples’ lives, especially those impacted by trauma, disability or other special needs,” she expresses.

Joan eventually found herself working as a journalist, covering a budding therapeutic riding program in Virginia. “There were not many places to become certified,” she mentions. She eventually found and attended the Cheff Center in Michigan. “To attend, you had to be willing to immerse yourself in a month-long program of training, teaching, and testing,” says Joan. “Once certified, I began to look for a way to provide this service to people with special needs. Back then, therapeutic programs were often an add-on to typical boarding and lesson barns. That was when I decided to build my own program from the ground up.”

In 1996, Joan and husband Randy started plans on the facility. “We used a 12 acre parcel of land adjacent to his family’s farm,” she explains. “In the summer of 1997, we broke ground for the American with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant stable.” Building took several years, eventually welcoming the program’s first students in the fall of 2001.

The ROSES stable and arena were intentionally designed from the ground up to be completely accessible. Everything remains organized in a way that those with cognitive impairments or issues with mobility can experience increasing independence as they accomplish the sequence of what comes first, next, and last when working with the horses.

During the developmental stage, Farm Credit loan officer Keith Wills was available for assistance. “Joan reached out to me with the possibility of securing financing that would enable them to work toward completing infrastructure projects. What impressed me at first was what they had been able to accomplish through donations of both financial and hours of service,” says Keith. “Born from the idea of helping special-needs individuals, the classrooms, indoor-riding arena with ramps, and stairs to help reach and mount horses is truly amazing.”

Keith continues, “Just to have a riding arena of this quality is a huge undertaking. Now they have a mobile van unit that can transport miniature horses to schools, events, and care facilities.”

Three years ago, Joan and her team were approached by a continuing care facility wanting them to work with residents who had various forms of memory loss. “The Silver Steeds program was born, achieving much success prior to COVID-19,” explains Joan. “Over the years, it has become apparent that for every one student or senior coming to us, there may be five more left behind who cannot travel to the farm for multiple reasons. That, coupled with a request from a juvenile detention facility, led ROSES to conduct a campaign to purchase and outfit a van to transport miniature horses to off-site locations.” Joan has also been approached by an area hospital seeking visitations to help with staff morale, stress reduction for patients’ families, and an unexpectedly delightful distraction for the patients themselves.

According to Joan, the growing sense of accomplishment and competence leads to marked elevations in confidence and joy each week. Color coding, PECs (picture enhanced communication methods), and a good old-fashioned philosophy of ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’ is used with students. Lessons are reliably structured, there is a predictable routine with appropriately individualized challenges added in each week. Their students’ levels of confidence and responsibility have grown not only at the barn but back at home and in academic settings, as well as within their communities at large.

“Research has shown that positive human-animal interactions can lower blood pressure, heart rate, and reduce levels of stress hormones like cortisol. Studies have also shown a rise in feel-good neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin occur during and after being around animals,” she shares. “To successfully interact with animals, and horses in particular, an individual has to be able to self-modulate their actions, reactions, and emotions. Doing that requires a certain amount of mindfulness; once a person becomes aware of their emotions, they can work on managing them.”

Keith has worked with ROSES for 15 years and still sees benefits of the program. “Profit is not just dollars,” shares Keith. “Profits can also be measured by the number of people you reach. Being able to help Joan and her organization just seems right.”

To read the full version of this story, visit mafc.com/blog/stability.

To learn more about or donate to ROSES, visit roseofsharonschool.org

Facebook: @roseofsharonschool

Instagram: @roseofsharonequestrianschool