Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
School field trip gallops into a full-time venture
BENTONVILLE — When Debbie Studyvin learned that her son’s school was brainstorming ways to make special education students feel more included, she had just the thing.
They wanted activities that would remove the separation between students in special education classes — which were located in a different building on the school’s grounds — and those in other classrooms.
She would offer her farm as a field trip option, where kids could go and ride horses, in hopes the activity would begin to remove barriers.
“I just really wanted to do that,” says Studyvin, operations manager for Horses for Healing. “I had grown up with friends who had disabilities, and worked in barns where they wouldn’t let disabled riders ride, and it always just really bothered me that it wasn’t allowed.”
At the time, she was giving riding lessons, and asked her students to help her out. From one with legal expertise, she asked for a liability form, and from Harriette Habern, she re- quested the use of her pony, so more students could ride at one time.
The field trip was such a hit that the Rogers school system wanted to make it a continuing program.
“What I thought was going to be a fun field trip ended up changing all of our lives,” Studyvin says.
She, Habern and other friends teamed up to cover expenses and created Rocky Creek Horses Help.
It put to use her 20 acre farm and horses to help 17 special-needs students from
the Rogers and Bentonville school districts learn how to interact with others better, pay attention, follow directions and stay on task — in a fun way.
So fun, in fact, that many children have had startling breakthroughs on the farm.
“We’ve had children who are 10 years old and have never spoken before,” Studyvin says. “They are so motivated by what’s going on and the movement that happens while they’re on a horse that they speak out loud for the first time.”
Others gain enough strength and balance to depend less on wheelchairs and walk more confidently on their own.
“It’s not like a miracle thing. It takes time, but these little steps become bigger steps.”
For students who have trouble walking, riding stimulates and acclimates the muscles needed for walking.
“[When] I pick up a kid out of a wheelchair, they feel like they’re made out of plas- tic,” Studyvin says. “They’re all bones and stiff. Put them on a horse for 15 minutes, take them off and they’re all looselimbed, a warm and happy kid. ”
The program’s success meant an inevitable expansion, and before long they had 75 acres for riding and were serving 400 kids annually — a number that’s holding steady.
Now known as Horses for Healing, they provide six- and 12-week sessions in which students ride horses for an hour or two a few times a week while also learning stable management. The outings strengthen fine and gross motor skills, and an added perk is the kids are more confident in the classroom.
Students learn how to care for a horse in a barn classroom, which Studyvin says is a difficult spot for students who have struggled in school. While learning about horse care, the students get more comfortable with classroom structure and behavior without realizing it.
“They take what they learned in stable management back into a classroom setting,” she says. They realize, “‘Hey, I can answer, I can raise my hand. It does work.’ They take all that good feeling back into the classroom.”
In addition to getting encouragement, students also learn more easily why it’s important to take care of themselves too, through hygiene and safety.
For one autistic rider, the experience has helped her overcome the terror she associated with anyone — parents, teachers — touching her head.
One of the rules is everyone must wear a helmet to ride. Studyvin says, after many screaming fits over not wanting to wear the helmet, the greater disappointment of not getting to ride won the girl over.
“Just trying to comb her hair every morning was a struggle and it was tearing the family apart,” Studyvin says. “The next year they came out in cooler weather and she had a cap on. It didn’t bother her after that.”
Of all the things they provide, Studyvin says, the most valuable is the sense of inclusion and empowerment students feel.
“These are the kids who don’t get to do the extra activ- ities,” she says. “They’re left out … they’re on the sidelines.
“Well, here’s something they get to do. ‘Hey, I’m on this big ol’ horse and telling it where to go and when to stop. [Sometimes] I can’t even get myself to go, but I’m doing it.’”
Schools and patrons of Horses for Healing pay a to- ken amount, usually never enough to cover the expense of one session, but no child is turned away. To help meet the budget, a charity horse show will take place Oct. 18 and 19 at the Horses for Healing grounds in Bentonville.
For more information on this event, see horsesforhealingnwa.org or call (479) 795-0570.