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By BRENNA GRITEMAN

LIFE EDITOR

OTTAWA — As program director at Challenged Champions Equestrian Center, Amanda Sizemore has no shortage of heart-warming success stories:

Nonverbal students whose parents are stunned to overhear their children calling out commands like “whoa” and “walk on.”

A woman in her 70s with uncontrollable tremors due to Parkinson’s disease, whose body goes still when she mounts her horse.

A wheelchair-bound student who can now ride for 45 minutes without the aid of his oxygen tank or ventilator — and who can walk 25 steps with assistance.

Participant payoff is as varied as the center’s programming, which continues to grow and change as more people learn of its availability. For most riders, though, Sizemore says the benefits include improved balance and trunk control, posture and motor skills. Things like increased confidence and a feeling of empowerment from being so high off the ground and experiencing a horse following your commands is priceless.

“We are teaching a riding lesson, but the cool thing about this is all the added benefit,” Sizemore says.

Challenged Champions, situated on a sprawling rural property outside of Ottawa, offers equine-assisted activities and therapies for people with a variety of special needs. What began in 1997 with a determined individual taking horses to the Putnam County Fairgrounds twice a week has blossomed into a five-day-a-week, 382-participant nonprofit agency offering physical, behavioral and occupational therapy for people age 4 and older. The agency boasts a series of barns and pastures, along with a heated indoor arena that allows students to ride in all weather. Eighteen horses and a mini-horse live on the farm, with 11 working in the program.

The agency’s school-age program has seen significant growth in the past several years, with Patrick Henry Local Schools now on a wait list. The program runs four days a week, two and a half hours at a time, serving students age 4-18 with physical, emotional and cognitive disabilities. Liberty-Benton students attend Mondays and Tuesdays; students from Findlay City Schools attend Wednesdays; and Riverdale and Van Buren bus in riders on Fridays. Due to the program’s popularity, riders attend in four- to 10-week blocks before allowing a new rotation of students to participate.

Sizemore says a typical class size is six to 12 students. Since only four riders can be in the arena at once, nonriders work with an occupational therapist on staff to complete worksheets, puzzles and crafts while watching their peers through a window into the arena.

When it’s their turn to ride, students spend their first 10 minutes brushing their horse while volunteer instructors check their saddle, stirrups and helmet.

Sizemore notes just stepping into the arena stimulates the senses — quite literally, as the uneven, dirt floor is a change from school hallways. New sights, smells and sounds abound, and participants vary in the time it takes to warm to their surroundings.

One student spent her first encounter visibly trembling and refusing to mount the horse. “Now her mom says it’s all she talks about,” Sizemore says.

“Most of the kids, they’re like, let’s do it. They just put their trust in you that you’re going to put them up there and life is going to be good,” she adds.

All riders must first be medically cleared by a doctor, and those who can’t ride spend their time grooming horses or being pulled in a cart. A hydraulic lift system helps wheelchair-bound riders mount their horse.

Other concessions can also be made. A student with cerebral palsy and less capacity to stretch, for instance, might be assigned to a narrower horse. And a student with sensory issues might skip the saddle and instead employ bare-back pads, which allow the rider to feel the horse’s warmth and movement. The wider, Western saddles assist students with balance issues, while a therapeutic riding saddle can accommodate a handlebar.

The majority of the horses in the program are quarter horses, with a few ponies thrown in. Many were donated from the University of Findlay, while others came from a private donor. Sizemore says each horse undergoes a minimum of 60 days of training before becoming involved with the program, and still not every horse is up for every task.

Some horses, for instance, just don’t tolerate having a basketball thrown by a rider on their back. Since games are a huge part of the school-age program, this horse would not make the cut for game time. Other horses are thrown off by inexperienced, unbalanced riders, so they, too, are kept in the stable based on who is in the arena that day.

These horses might, however, be just right for the agency’s other missions, like the therapeutic program offered to veterans. This program allows veterans and active duty service members to learn horse care, grooming, leading, tacking and riding, all free of charge. Bridge Hospice of Findlay also regularly takes bereaved youth to the stables for grief counseling camps.

Challenged Champions is in need of volunteers to help with daytime and evening programming, weekdays only. Volunteers must be 14 or older, and no previous horse experience is necessary. Call 419-456-3449 for more details or email the agency at challengedchampions@yahoo.com.

Griteman: 419-427-8477

brennagriteman@thecourier.com

Twitter: @BrennaGriteman

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