Meeting Life’s Hurdles on Horseback

It’s their sixth riding lesson, but sometimes the students want to wander away or shake hands. Once they have mounted, they look down instead of up. They let go of the reins when they should be pulling at them.

An equestrian triumph it’s not. But, for the four autistic children taking the class Wednesday at Bonita Equestrian Therapy for the Handicapped, it’s progress.

“The first week (the children) were all over the place,” said Jo Rangus, founder and director of the school, one of five nonprofit centers in San Diego County that teach riding skills to physically and mentally handicapped children and adults.

That first time, one of the boys had a temper tantrum; the others stepped out of their van and headed in different directions. By Wednesday, they had learned to groom the horses and to use the reins to guide the animals around the ring.

The lesson begins about 9 a.m. The tools seem simple enough: three brushes to draw dirt away from the skin, a pick to clean the hoofs. Next, the halters and bridles are put on and the horses led to the gate. With gentle shoves upward, the four young riders from Stein Education Center in Mission Gorge, mount.

Rangus opened the center in 1985, with the horses either donated or leased for a dollar a year. She and co-instructor Amy Dendy teach 72 children and adults at the riding school on the BlackLand Farm in Bonita. Participants attend free, and volunteers pitch in to help guide the horses or clean the stables.

Lida McCowan, executive director of the Cheff Center in Michigan, where Rangus learned her skills, said therapists use the horses to help move the spastic parts of the riders’ bodies. Self-esteem, balance and coordination are increased along with muscle tone, she said.

Jenny Nell, head instructor at Riding Emphasizing Individual Needs and Strengths, or REINS, in San Marcos, agreed that students’ self-esteem improves after a few lessons.

“The children sometimes can’t read or talk or walk,” Nell said. “But, once they are on a horse, they can do something that other children can do. . . . It makes them feel bigger than life.”

The three other schools in the county are Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe, Happy Horsemanship for the Handicapped in La Mesa and the San Diego County Special Olympics Equestrian Program in Escondido.