Horses for Healing helping kids and adults with special needs
NEWCASTLE -- Horseback riding is a form of therapy at Horses for Healing in Newcastle. It has been helping people with special needs since 1997.
Sedona Welsh, 17, could not walk when she first started riding horses there when she was four.
"Back when she started, she was not ambulating by herself, she had a walker," said Sedona's mother Diana Welsh.
Welsh is thankful for the therapeutic horseback riding that has been helping her daughter over the years.
"She just becomes so much more confident about moving and also her coordination," said Welsh.
Program Director for Horses for Healing Marcy Schaffer-Egot is passionate about saddling up kids and adults with special needs, seeing what a beneficial impact it's made.
"It is really amazing," said Schaffer-Egot. "It makes you almost want to cry."
She said horses have positive impacts to humans - psychologically, socially, physically, behaviorally, and cognitively.
"Horses are very intuitive," said Schaffer-Egot. "They sort of sense what you need."
Instead of staying seated in a wheelchair, riders are balancing on a horse building strength, balance, and coordination.
"When they are on a horse they are just like a king or queen," said Schaffer-Egot. "I have clients that learn how to talk, autistic clients."
Welsh said it has helped her daughter overcome some of her fears like interacting with a massive animal like a horse and the volunteers that assist her in the exercises.
"After the ride, she became so much more fluid and confident," said Welsh.
Horses for Healing is hosting its 12th annual Spaghetti and Meatball Bash at the Auburn Elk Lodge on Pine Street on Saturday from 4:45-8:30 p.m.