Is Horse Riding an effective therapy tool?

Marsh chats with Sonya Burks of Healing Horses, Inc to discuss the benefits of equine assisted therapy. 

Sonya Burks can be contacted through Facebook @healinghorsesinc, healinghorsesinc@gmail.com or 731 589 3000

For an equine center near you check out https://www.pathintl.org/

Kellan with Sonya Burks at Healing Horses

Transcript

Marsh Naidoo (00:23):

Welcome to this episode of the Raising Kellan Podcast to motivate, inspire, and educate parents, raising kids with special needs. Today's topic for discussion is horse riding and effective therapy too. I am your host, Marsh Naidoo. My guest today is just as comfortable in the barn as she's in the boardroom. Put your hands together for Sonya Bus, founder and executive director of Healing Horses Inc. A nonprofit organization in Tennessee. Welcome to the show, Sonya.

Sonya Burks (01:04):

Thank you, Marsh. I'm so happy to be here with you today.

Marsh Naidoo (01:07):

Y'all, I've known Sonya for the last three to four years during which time Kellan has taken lessons with her. What inspired you to get, what inspired your love for horses?

Sonya Burks (01:21):

Well, I don't wanna tell too much history about myself, but when I was eight or nine years old, I'm an Air Force brat, so all the kids in the neighborhood had horses and my sister and I decided that we wanted to have one too. So we were able to get a couple horses. My first horse was actually a 17-hand, which is a very, very big horse, 17-hand court horse. My sister got a POA, which is a pony of America. So we were able to go to the stables each day feed water, have to clean out the stalls, which taught us a lot of responsibility at a very, very young age. So that got me started into the equine part of my life.

Marsh Naidoo (02:05):

What led you to starting Healing Horses though, Sonya?

Sonya Burks (02:10):

Well, I had a really good friend who has multiple sclerosis and her doctor actually recommended some equine therapy for her disease

Marsh Naidoo (02:21):

Listeners. That's basically using a horse to develop the goals of therapy are the other benefit events.

Sonya Burks (02:32):

By getting up on that horse you are working core muscles and your arms and your legs where you might not be doing that just in a normal setting somewhere.

Marsh Naidoo (02:46):

So it's incorporating that balance and that coordination. That's right. And it's also doing your therapy in a fun way with you not necessarily having to think about it.

Sonya Burks (02:56):

Well, and equine assisted therapy is not just for people with physical disabilities and as we do work a lot with folks with autism, with people that have blindness, emotional issues. So it's not so much even the physical part of what they actually receive through equine assisted therapy. It's also gaining that confidence in what they're doing when they're on top of that horse or even grooming or brushing or learning how to put a saddle on. So there's a lot more benefits than just being up on top of the horse and the physical part of equine therapy, We try to make it a good time. We try to make it fun. We laugh, we sing and we call 'em participants, which is gonna be the students. They have no idea what they're actually receiving being up on that horse. They don't know that they're getting the physical strength through the core.

(03:52):

Even doing a two-point, which is where you stand up in the saddle, they don't have any idea when they're tossing that ring when they are neck raining around poles and barrels, what they're actually doing to strengthening, strengthen their self physical body, but also the confidence that they're learning in themselves through a lesson where I may teach something about memory and they actually remember what they're supposed to do. Or let's say someone who really has never spoken very much before. And I've had some students that have got autism and they've never spoken, but they'll learn to say, walk on and whoa. And that's a big accomplishments. So there's lots of positive things that come out of just the horse therapy.

Marsh Naidoo (04:51):

Sonya heating horses as so has been in operation for about five years now. What kind of participants have you had coming to you through this time?

Sonya Burks (05:02):

Well, we have I mentioned autism.

Marsh Naidoo (05:05):

Yes ma'am.

Sonya Burks (05:11):

I have to stop and think you down. I've had a few with Down Syndrome, some learning disabilities. I've got one or two that have had some head trauma and I've had some with just emotional issues

Marsh Naidoo (05:27):

As well. So it's just not kids as well. Do you have some adults participants?

Sonya Burks (05:32):

I have the age that we try to start at is four as young as four and I've had 'em up to in their fifties.

Marsh Naidoo (05:43):

Are there any restrictions that would kind of provincial prohibit a person from trying out the equine-assisted therpay?

Sonya Burks (05:51):

Marsh, that is a really good question because what I do as an executive director and a certified instructor is there is paperwork that I have to give the guardian or the parent that needs to be filled out. And in some cases the physician has to be involved as well to make sure it's gonna be a benefit, that it's going to help this individual, that it's not gonna harm them physically. So I have to, and I'm not a doctor, but I have to study and do the research on what the disability is to make sure it's gonna be a helpful needed therapy for that person instead of something that might hurt them.

Marsh Naidoo (06:30):

What have been some of the highlights over the last 4 years, Sonya?

Sonya Burks (06:34):

The highlights <laugh>, it is such a blessing to me every week. We don't necessarily shut down through the year if the weather's permitted based on not being too hot or too cold. We try to have lessons a couple through the week and then on Saturday mornings. But it blesses me and the volunteers so much to see the accomplishments that these participants, when they started with our center and how far they are now again, going back to some of those that barely said a word or two and now they laugh and they sing and they will say walk on. Some other as far as physical highlights that I've recognized is where you might have had a child that could barely sit up in the saddle and now they're sitting up on their own. They're holding the reins, their neck raining through all of the patterns that we put before them. So those to me are some of the highlights

Marsh Naidoo (07:42):

And the challenges. I'm sure running a non-profit is no easy task. What are some of the challenges you'll face?

Sonya Burks (07:51):

We've been so blessed in Dire County to have so many people that support us and believe in us because we are a nonprofit, we run solely off of what is donated to us. We have been able to, my husband and I have had this going even before we even really had some donations coming in. And I look at this as a ministry and God has provided very richly for us to be able to survive cuz it is very costly and expensive when you have say, five therapeutic courses in a program as far as getting the word out to people that we are a nonprofit that has come from word of mouth and just the folks that are our accounting, knowing us and what we are trying to accomplish.

Marsh Naidoo (08:43):

And I have to mention the Farm to Table event that takes place annually and that just keeps on growing from strength to strength. Tell us about that Farm to Table event that you'll have once a year as a

Sonya Burks (08:57):

Well, we've actually, I'm so glad you mentioned that Marsh, because we've got another one already scheduled for September the 24th of 2020. We're working on details right now. This'll be our fifth year and I can't believe it's been five years coming up. We just have the most amazing meal. Kurt and Leen Walker provide their venue, which is an amazing barn we have. Of course the board works very, very hard in the preparation for this as well. We've had FFA children from both Dyer County and Dyersburg that have participated and helped us serve. So it's just a really fun evening. But that is our one big fundraiser a year that we have had. So that is coming at Mark your calendars for September the 24th of 2020.

Marsh Naidoo (09:47):

So for that parents out there, that mom, that dad, that caregiver that's considering the Equi equine-assisted therapy for their kid, what would you say to push them over and to encourage them to look at it as a therapy for their child

Sonya Burks (10:06):

Mars? I think that parents should absolutely consider equine-assisted therapy for several reasons. Go out to our Facebook page and look at Healing Horses Inc's Facebook page. You can see where we have shared many things that we have done at our center, but it just will give that person an opportunity to have something different to do and not all of our participants can ride. Okay. Some of them may only lead a horse around the arena, but it is something additional and extra that participant can be involved in and exceed.

Marsh Naidoo (10:47):

Okay. Sonya, how can parents reach you? Where can they reach you at

Sonya Burks (10:52):

Healing Horses inc@gmail.com. Thank you for that. And then also private message me on our Healing Horses Inc. Facebook page.

Marsh Naidoo (11:02):

For those parents that don't live in DI County how would they be able to source a place to take their kids to in terms of a place that offers the equine assisted therapy?

Sonya Burks (11:14):

I'm so happy that you asked me that because it's just not about us here in Dyer County. This is what we can do nationwide. So a path is Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship. I would recommend they go up on that website and look for a center close to where they live. There's several of those across the United States, so they need to reach out and see what might be close to them and just check out their center.

Marsh Naidoo (11:40):

We have come to the end of another podcast and I hope that we were able to provide you with the information you need to make your decision. So until we see you the next time, remember to get the top of that mountain. This is Marsh Naidoo signing out.