SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Open House for Equine Therapists

For Alison Barth, the fun starts the night before.

“Just talking about riding the next day brings on a big smile,” said her grandmother, Rosemarie Barth of Irvine. “She just lives for it.”

Alison, 11, is one of 75 riders who train at the Fran Joswick Therapeutic Riding Center in a rural area along Trabuco Creek. Riders of all ages and with all sorts of disabilities, mental and physical, use horseback riding at the center as a form of therapy.

“Riding gives them a chance to learn important things about balance and coordination, along with social lessons in self-esteem,” said Tracey Stotz, the center’s director.

The lessons are structured by physical therapists to develop exercises based on the riders’ needs. “For some of our riders, just sitting on a horse is an accomplishment,” she said.

Riding is certainly an accomplishment for Alison, who was born a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. For her, riding offers not only a workout for her handicapped muscles but the same exhilaration from a ride that all equestrians enjoy. Maybe more so.

Her whoops of joy echoed through the 5-acre center.

“Can you imagine sitting in a wheelchair all day and then getting to ride a horse?” Alison’s grandmother asked. “Think about the mobility she has all of a sudden . . . and the happiness.”

The 14-year-old center, one of about 400 such therapeutic riding academies nationwide, will hold its annual open house at 10:30 a.m. today. The open house is a chance for the public to visit the stable area--at 26282 Oso Road, off Camino Capistrano--and meet the therapists and volunteers, as well as the center’s 13 horses. San Juan Capistrano Mayor Gil Jones, an equestrian himself, will attend and speak.

The center is a rallying point in this community, which prides itself in its equestrian heritage. Most of the center’s $200,000 annual budget comes from gifts and grants from local citizens, such as a recent $100,000 gift from Joan Irvine Smith, a San Juan Capistrano stable owner.

“Our actual fees we get from our riders make up only 13% of our needed income,” said Stotz, who added that the gift from Smith will be placed in a capital improvement fund earmarked for a permanent facility, among other possible uses. The center is operating on leased land, so she is looking for a permanent home.

Because of community backing, no disabled rider is turned away from the center. Those who cannot afford to pay for the therapy are granted scholarships to make up the difference, Stotz said.

The newest addition to the center is an oak carriage, hand-built by an Amish craftsman in Pennsylvania and bought by way of a grant from the South Coast chapter of the National Charity League. Once the horses are trained to pull the carriage, riders will be able to bring their wheelchairs aboard.

Stotz, only a novice rider herself, marvels at the accomplishments of the center’s students. One, a triple-amputee, has become a veteran rider and wants to start jumping in competition, if a special saddle can be designed for her.

Others--such as Javier Nin, 23, of Mission Viejo, who is deaf and speaks only through sign language--simply look forward to their day at the center.

“I just say, ‘It’s Thursday’ and Javier instantly makes the horseback riding sign,” said Tracey Jones of Sunset Beach, his sign-language translator.