Special Equestrians Volunteer Work

A selfie with Tom because he
actually lowed his head so I could
take picture with him!

My sister learning how to balance
while riding bareback for the first time on Shy. 

Hi everyone! As I have mentioned before, this last summer I had my internship at WLNS News 6 in Lansing. What wasn't mentioned was I also volunteered every Thursday at a program called Special Equestrians. I have been volunteering there for five years now and I love every second of it. Special Equestrians is a free program that encourages individuals with disabilities to come out and ride once a week with a show at the end of the season (end of September). Volunteers are in charge of leading the horse, but letting the riders do most of the work. The volunteers are mainly there to make sure nothing goes wrong or if it does, to fix the situation so everyone is safe. The program has four wonderful horses. Tom, as pictured in the left picture, is our large draft horse that we hitch to the cart. Some of participants can't ride because of their physical disabilities so we have a cart that has a wheelchair ramp just for those individuals as well as any other participant. Tom is so well trained that he will just stand there not tied up to anything while he is hitched to the cart. The other three horses are Lightfoot, Shoshannah, and Shy. These horses are saddled up and ready to go for the riders. All horses have had lots of training for the program. Loud noises and movement in the saddle does not phase them. At the end of lessons or in between lesson times, the volunteers get to ride. I am a member of the CMU Equestrian Team so during the summer, I get to practice my showing skills on these horses since I don't have a horse of my own. My sister also volunteers at the program and she has improved so much on her riding skills over the years. One of the days, I taught her how to ride bareback for the first time as shown in the picture on the right. She was nervous because balancing without a saddle is a weird feeling, but we had a blast. If anyone gets the opportunity to volunteer at a place like this, do it! It's such a heartwarming program to see all the participants' smiles as they ride. My favorite part is seeing how the horses just know what is going on and what they need to do. It's an amazing experience that I hope to continue throughout the years.