Learning to Ride Out Challenges

Spencer Teplitz bounced up and down like a pogo stick in the shade of a Newbury Park horse stable.

The 11-year-old autistic boy kept his day-camp helpers busy when he impulsively bolted or kicked dirt.

But something happened when riding teachers helped Spencer mount a chocolate-brown horse named Kharouselle. The boy quieted as he circled the arena. Then, improbably, he let out a big yawn.

“He’s relaxing,” said Gloria Hamblin, who runs the Ride On program for disabled children and adults. “It’s a little thing. But everyone gets excited with even the little things. It’s a step ahead.”

Tiny victories are the payoff for the organizers, volunteers and donors behind Ride On. The group began operating a therapeutic equestrian program out of a dusty stable next to the Ventura Freeway four months ago.

The nonprofit group has been working with disabled riders out of its Chatsworth base since 1994. Organizers jumped at the chance to expand into Ventura County when the Conejo Recreation & Park District offered a 40-year lease on the Walnut Grove Equestrian Center.

A local homeowner association donated the 13-acre property to the park district and Ride On agreed, for a $1-a-year fee, to create a program that organizers say will one day serve hundreds of county residents.

So far, the group has spent $100,000 adding portable offices and renovating a stable, barn and riding arena. But there is much left to do, said Bryan McQueeney, Ride On’s executive director.

The group’s Web site is https://www.rideon.org. To volunteer, call (805) 375-9078. For more information on a Sept. 8 fund-raiser at David Murdock’s Hidden Valley ranch, call (805) 496-0767. Tickets are $150 a plate.