Sopris Sun THE
VOLUME 1, NUMBER 31 • SEPTEMBER 10, 2009
Horses Sense A handful of locals are using horses to heal, and help people By Jane Bachrach
nce upon a time, Carbondale was a one-horse town. But gone are the days when a person could hear the clip-clop of horse hooves in the dust on Main Street. There is still a large horse population in and around Carbondale today, though, and after all these years, horses are being used in a new way – right here in Carbondale’s backyard. Horses are helping people heal. Local therapists and innovators are using them as a tool to help build confidence, self-esteem, and selfknowledge. They also use horses to help people with physical disabilities move more easily. Two local organizations, Windwalkers and Sopris Therapy Services (STS) that use horses to heal, are similar to one another.They’re both nonprofits and both work with physically, mentally and emotionally challenged children and adults. Horse Wisdom is a third local entity. It is quite different from the others, but Kathy Pike, who runs the business, uses horses in her practice for the same reason as Windwalkers and STS: Horses are great healers and teachers. Horses mirror our emotions. They can tell how we’re feeling on any given day. They pick up on our feelings and react to them in certain ways. The professionals who use them in a healing capacity can read their body language, which lets the teacher know how a human is feeling. There’s something special about a horse. It’s a quality that you almost can’t put into words or communicate, but it’s so compelling that many horse people would sell their house before they would sell their horse.“Horse people” know about it because they’ve experienced it, others are just beginning to figure it out. Health professionals, their patients, and healthy individuals are discovering how horses can help us learn about ourselves.
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Windwalkers
Kathy Pike spends a quiet moment with her mustang, Corazon. Photo by Jane Bachrach
“We figured out that we have an average of 35 butts in the saddle every week, ” Molly Robison said. Robison is the executive director of Windwalkers Equine Assisted Therapy and Learning Center at Cedar Ridge Ranch in Missouri Heights. Founded in 2005 with two riders and four horses, it has grown substantially over the years. Windwalkers currently uses eight horses but is looking for two more. Windwalkers now has a full-time staff of three people including Robison, a volunteer coordinator and a riding instructor. The organization also employs three part-time instructors. All of the instructors are NARH (North American Riding for the Handicapped) certified. Most of the group’s clients have been referred by speech pathologists, physical therapists and school counselors. Windwalkers also works with groups like the Youth Recovery Center out of Valley View Hospital, Mountain Valley Developmental Services and the Roaring Fork Autism Network According to Robison, “Therapy riding in general is becoming much more widely accepted and recognized.” “Physically, if you put a wheelchair person
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