Book is great summer read

an art class assigned to create a self-portrait ... very funny!

Smith taught art at three different universities over a period of 30 years and paints abstract works.

Mary Bergen was a former student, who went home for Christmas and never returned, we learn.

Elgin is asked to nd her ... He starts with checking a Du Cane book out from the library and taking it home to read to Roger.

e possibility of co-writing a book with Du Cane surfaces and is discarded ... and surfaces again, accompanied by entertaining chatter.

We meet another Granby resident named Mr. Friday ... he seems to be well-supplied with factoids of all sorts ... Christmas lights were invented in 1914 by a Denver man named D.D. Sturgeon. His son was ill and couldn’t come to see the family Christmas tree. Sturgeon painted some bulbs and strung them on an outside tree so the boy could see them from his bed, according to Friday, who liked to hang out at the local diner. Modeled on a longtime friend of Smith’s ...

Somehow, Mary Bergen’s name leads to a chapter about the famous ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his friend, Charlie McCarthy — and a session between Charlie McCarthy and the very funny comedian, W. C. Fields — and a dialogue between them ...

A trip on the Zephyr to Ottumwa, Iowa is another detective job, involving a search for one Nadine Wol nger — and en route, he met Heidi Spottle ... “Everyone should take an overnight train ride.”

Back in Granby, days continue, with new encounters and characters.

Clever dialogue, quirky characters, pretty much perfect summer reading — no beach required — just a cool lemonade and a shady spot inside or out to settle in and let Smith entertain you.

“Where is Mary Bergen?” is a paperback and will tuck in a tote or suitcase handily.

Not sure how to add these to the landscape? Try pairing them with some of our native grasses like blue gramma (Bouteloua gracilis) and little bluestem (Schizachryum scoparium). Using groundcovers and grasses reduces the need for maintenance like weeding and mulching each season.

Laura Swain is a horticulturist with the Denver Botanic Gardens.

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

When people think of horses, they might associate them with ranch living, horse racing or recreational riding, but horses can be therapeutic, too. erapy takes many forms, from physical to mental. Some people travel to a ranch to work with horses as part of the therapeutic process.

Equine-assisted therapy was something Arvada native Kelsey Petitt discovered while studying occupational therapy at Pima Medical Institute in Denver. Having grown up riding horses, it immediately caught her attention.

“I just, kind of, was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the coolest thing ever. I can combine my true passion of horses and really being able to help and assist participants and patients with doing therapy and reaching their functional goals while also having fun with horses and having that relationship,’” Petitt said.

Although she knew immediately that equine-assisted therapy was something she wanted to pursue, she did not do so immediately. Following her schooling and clinical internships, she quickly began working and then had her daughter.

However, in 2021 Petitt, who now lives in Brighton, decided to establish the Brighton-based Prestige erapeutic Equestrian Center, o ering an occupational therapy program that brings the four-legged companions into the practice.

“Now, I’m going on 11 years of being a therapist and so it’s taken me a little bit of time to get back to, really, what I wanted to do,” said Petitt, who also works as an occupational therapy assistant for a company called erapeutic and Rehabilitative Associates.

Her purpose, like many other therapists incorporating horses into their practice, is clear: “Transforming lives through the therapeutic power of horses.”

Bringing horses into occupational therapy

Occupational therapists help people develop skills so that they can perform day-to-day tasks such as bathing, dressing and eating, as well as techniques to aid in memory and concentration, according to the American Occupational erapy Association.

For example, occupational therapists may work on a person’s ne motor skills, such as being able to button a jacket or holding a fork, Petitt said.

ey also work on sensory integration, which she said usually comes up when working with someone who is on the autism spectrum.

Another example of work they do is helping someone with their feeding skills, such as for patients with Parkinson’s disease who experience a lot of tremors. Improving core strength may also be a focus for patients, such as for someone who struggles to put their shirt on due to a lack of strength.

“ ere’s an array of di erent settings that you can get into in the occupational therapy eld, but I think for me, the equine-assisted movement is just something that I’ve always loved,” she said. “Horses are just so therapeutic in general, for anybody.” e term “hippotherapy” refers to how occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathology professionals use equine movement as a therapy tool, according to the American Hippotherapy Association.

To use hippotherapy in treatment, a person must be a licensed therapist who has completed continuing education in the inclusion of horses and equine movement, per the association. Petitt has gotten her rst level of training with the association, and she plans to continue with her training this fall.

However, Petitt explained that she does not refer to herself as a hippotherapist because hippotherapy is not its own therapy.

“We’re not hippotherapists,” she said. “Hippotherapy is utilizing the horse. All of our treatments are either occupational therapy, speech therapy or physical therapy, and we’re just using the horse as a treatment tool, basically.”

With her clients, she said she is working on all of the same therapy interventions that she would be in a therapy gym or in an outpatient program, but instead she’s now doing it by having her clients get onto a horse and incorporating the horse’s movement into the treatment.

“We work o the horse’s pelvis, so their pelvis is very similar to ours,” she said. ere are di erent planes for the horse in the way that their pelvis moves — the sagittal plane, frontal plane and transverse plane, she said.

“We’re working on that constantly, so when we have our riders on the horse, they’re also working on that. And it’s one of the most multi-dimensional movement(s) that’s rhythmic and repetitive,” she said.

For someone experiencing conditions such as limited mobility, limited core strength, cognitive delays, or sensory processing disorders, “it can really just kind of help bene t and improve all of those elements,” she said of equine-assisted therapy.

According to a study published in the international journal, Physiotherapy eory and Practice, there are “signicant positive e ects” of equine-assisted therapy on exercise tolerance, mobility, interpersonal interactions and quality of life of people with disabilities.

Another study focused on the ef- fects of equine-assisted activities and therapies for individuals on the autism spectrum and concluded that these programs “substantially improve” the social and behavioral functions of people who are on the autism spectrum.

“Communication is pretty key, too … because horses mirror us, so a lot of our participants can learn a lot more speech and communication successfully with the horses, which is really great,” she said.

Petitt has three horses she works with. e horse a client is paired with is dependent on their individual needs, she explained.

“Part of what’s so cool is because we can kind of tailor it to that participant, that patient, and kind of really work on what we need to work on with them,” she said. “ eir postural control, sensory systems, motor planning.”

In a typical therapy gym for occupational therapy, Petitt said there are tools such as a swing, a ball and a mat to use for the session. However, these do not provide the same level of sensory input and rhythmic, consistent movement that equine-assisted therapy can, which she said is great at building overall strength, control and balance.

“We can work in the therapy gym all day but the bene ts and the outcomes that we’re seeing while doing therapy on the horses are just so much more transformative and more meaningful than we can get in the gym,” she said.

Looking ahead, Petitt said she hopes to soon expand her team to include a physical therapist.

“And then I’m really hoping to hire a speech therapist as well, because riding the horses … there’s so much to do with our respiration rate when we’re riding them,” she said. “What that can do for speech language pathologists is really help with that physiological system of how we talk.”

At the Prestige erapeutic Equestrian Center, Petitt also o ers “therapeutic horseback riding,” which she explained is not a professional therapy service but is rather like a recreational sport where individuals learn riding skills. is experience can, in turn, lead to other bene ts such as helping deal with anxiety.

However, when it comes to getting professional therapy treatment for mental health conditions like coping with trauma, grief, abuse, or other challenging experiences, community members have an equinebased option — the therapists with Rocky Mountain Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, LLC.

Horses and psychotherapy

Carina Kellenberger and Dana Schultz, both licensed clinical social workers who grew up loving horses, established Rocky Mountain Equine Assisted Psychotherapy in 2013.

Schultz, who lives near Superior, and Kellenberger, who lives in Longmont, primarily practice at the Happy Dog Ranch in the Littleton area and at Medicine Horse in Boulder.

“We are licensed clinical social workers that have a trauma-specialty focus in … equine therapy,” Schultz said, explaining they do formal intakes and development clinical-based treatment plans.

ere is a di erence between equine-assisted therapy and equine-facilitated therapy, Kellenberger noted.

“When we rst started our business back in 2013, the word ‘equine-facilitated learning and psychotherapy’ did not exist, but that is the work we are doing,” Kellenberger said. “Equine-facilitated psychotherapy and learning means that the horse — the relationship with the horse is the vehicle for change.”

Under the practice of equine-facilitated psychotherapy, it is the client’s relationship and connection with the animal that is moving the sessions forward, she said.

“ e di erence between the learning and the psychotherapy are, like, a lot of the group work is mainly more learning because we’re not really diving into personal issues and we’re keeping it a little more surface level,” Kellenberger said. “But (in) the psychotherapy … we go as deep just like any o ce therapist would.”

Equine-assisted therapy is di erent because while horses are incorporated into the practice, the client’s relationship with them is not the driving force, she said. Rather, the horses are more of a tool component of the therapy.

“ ey might be being used more as a metaphor or as a way to help move through an activity, but they’re not — the relationship with the animal isn’t the central piece,” she added. “In the facilitated work that we do with our clients, it’s the relationship as the primary drive and the connection with the horse.”

Kellenberger and Schultz may use an equinefacilitated or an equine-assisted therapy approach when treating a client, as it depends on what the client is seeking, Schultz said. Kellenberger added that equine-assisted therapy is bene cial as an assessment tool.

Both Schultz and Kellenberger received certi cation in animal-assisted social work from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work, as well as completed training through the organization Natural Lifemanship in trauma-focused equineassisted psychotherapy. e trauma a lot of their clients experience is a ecting the way they show up in their human relationships, Kellenberger said. ese therapy sessions provide a way for clients to, in a safe space, start to make changes to those patterns and feel more comfortable not only in their relationship to the horse but in their relationships with people, explained Kellenberger.

“A lot of our clients, they’re coming to us because they’ve experienced trauma, and so we’re making sure that everything that we’re doing is through that lens as well,” Kellenberger said.

Schultz noted their approach is always using a clinical, evidence-based lens and horses are a part of the team. She works with clients to identify their primary goals and the horse becomes their partner in that journey.

“We know that therapy is hard and incredibly personal, and it’s a di cult journey for people to admit, like, ‘Hey, I need help.’ And so one of the things that we always do is provide our potential clients with a free meet-and-greet,” Schultz said, explaining the person can visit the ranch to meet her and hear the elevator pitch.

“Part of that elevator pitch is recognizing how difcult the therapeutic process and journey can be for some, and that the relationship that you have with the therapist is as important as the relationship that you are going to form with your horse,” she added.

Most of the work during therapy sessions is unmounted, Kellenberger said, explaining the clients may do things like grooming the horse, leading the horse or doing other things that help them feel connected to the horse.

Once sessions begin, Schultz said herself and Kellenberger are skilled at identifying patterns in people’s behaviors.

“We basically say, ‘I’m noticing this pattern. Is it helpful or not?’” Schultz said, explaining they use the identi cation of patterns to build rapport and trust with clients before then delving deeper into working through their trauma.

“Working with the horses — who are prey animals and are highly sensitive and attuned to our intentions, our emotions — they make excellent partners in this work, because they are able to kind of mirror or … show the patterns that people have in the same way that a human would,” Kellenberger said.

Schultz noted that the work being done during these therapy sessions happens in the moment, providing an opportunity for real-time change.

“Our horses … they are not magical unicorn creatures. ey are going to ignore our clients. ey are going to resist,” Schultz said. “And the client is going to, you know, respond or react.

“And that’s kind of what we’re observing and saying, ‘Hey, is this pattern helpful for you? Because it’s happening right here, right now. So, right now, in this moment, you’re feeling frustrated, you’re feeling abandoned, you’re feeling unheard, (or) you’re feeling whatever. What can we do right now in this moment to help shift the way that you’re feeling to a more balanced thought?’” she continued.

“ e actual brain starts to change while they’re working with the animal,” Kellenberger said. “And horses are really great at this, also, because they are prey animals. ey are looking for vulnerability and congruence from us because that’s how they keep themselves safe in the wild.”

“If a client is really holding back an emotion, they’re being incongruent, you’ll see the reaction from the horse in that way,” she continued. “As soon as … our clients are able to start to be more congruent in their own bodies, that feels very safe for the horse and that’s where the connections really start to form.”

It is through this real-time therapy work with the horse that the clients can begin to learn how to transfer the shifts in their approach into their everyday lives, Schultz explained.

“Having done this for 10 years, I can tell you, we have seen so many clients who come in and they’re like, ‘I’ve tried everything else. Nothing else works,’” Schultz said. “We see clients, I think, for a shorter period of time, I think, on average, than maybe what a traditional talk therapist in an o ce setting would see because it isn’t so retroactive or future-oriented.” Kellenberger added, “It’s kind of just eye-opening, and it can unlock patterns that people didn’t know that they had that they’ve been working on for years in the o ce. So I would say that the horses are amazing partners because they are so sensitive and they can show us a lot about ourselves pretty quickly.”

Spreading the word

All three therapists expressed a desire to raise awareness of the existence of their practices and how it can help people. “It’s as good as … any other therapy,