Triple Creek Therapy Riding and Rescue.
About Us
Triple Creek Therapy Riding and Rescue is a Therapeutic Riding Center located in Red Bluff, California,
Mission: to assist people toward achieving a balance of mind, body and spirit through the use of horses and other activities with Christian values.
Classes offered at the Ranch: Therapeutic Horseback Riding and Christian Youth Horsemanship.
About Us
Triple Creek Therapy Riding and Rescue is a Therapeutic Riding Center located in Red Bluff, California,
Mission: to assist people toward achieving a balance of mind, body and spirit through the use of horses and other activities with Christian values.
Classes offered at the Ranch: Therapeutic Horseback Riding and Christian Youth Horsemanship.
Horse therapy program helps kids with disabilities
Posted: April 27, 2014
SHARED By Alayna Shulman of the Redding Record Searchlight
Austin Bassett, 9, walks with Triple Creek Therapeutic Riding and Youth Activities director Eileen Reese, center, and volunteer Alyssa Alford at Reese's property in Red Bluff. Bassett, who suffers from autism, is part of the horse therapy program.
The story of Austin Bassett's first words is a particularly memorable one.
Austin ? who has autism ? was looking at horses with his mother, Dianne, when she showed him how to brush the horse's neck. That's what inspired Austin to talk for the first time ? at 6 years old.
"Austin said, ?No, Mommy, that's not his neck, that's his hair.' He had never spoken before ? ever," said Dianne Bassett of Anderson.
Austin and nine or so other people with disabilities or emotional issues are among the current clients at Triple Creek Ranch Inc. Therapeutic Riding & Youth Programs, which uses horses both to help them strengthen muscles and find comfort in life.
"Putting horses in kids' lives is so important," said Eileen Reese, director of the program. "It's an experiential program, where people get to experience the horse ? it's not just get on the horse and ride."
Reese and her volunteers for the nonprofit meet with clients just about every day, sometimes at her home in the Red Bluff area and weekly at Palo Cedro's Triple Creek Ranch, which volunteer Judy Allen lets them use for therapy sessions.
The volunteers help kids using horses ranging from 25-year-old Icelandic Joe to the spirited white mare, Cali. Horseback riding not only helps the kids with physical disabilities strengthen their muscles, Reese said, but the creatures' unique nature brings many of them to connect with another being, sometimes for the first time.
"They grin from ear to ear when they get on that horse," Allen said.
That was the case for Jamie Miles, a Shasta Lake 26-year-old with Rett syndrome, similar to autism.
While she loved horses just about all her life, she was terrified the first time Jamie met one in person, recalled mom Janet Miles.
"But she worked through it," Miles said. "She actually overcame it, and she loves it now. She's just as comfortable on a horse as a kid would be on a bicycle now."
Jamie's syndrome keeps her mentally isolated much of the time, Miles said, but that changes when she comes to the ranch.
"Sometimes she seems to be kind of in her own little world at times, but when she comes out here, we can see her smiling at the other people and looking around," Miles said on a recent cloudy afternoon at the ranch off Deschutes Road.
For Austin, the horses have such a calming effect he's somehow able to process language better while riding than any other time, Bassett said.
"It just calms him," she said. "The world just makes sense when he's on a horse."
Indeed, horses are known to benefit children with autism, said Sarah Newton-Cromwell, an instructor with the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International and a master's student in the Horse Science program at Middle Tennessee State University.
"The movement of the horse provides a symmetric and repetitive motion that can stimulate the brain," she said. "For children with autism, riding the horse provides a sensory stimulation they need. ... Using major muscles can help students with autism ?come into their body' and enable them to then focus on other learning tasks."
Apart from the positive mental impacts, Austin also benefits from an especially strong bond with Cali, Bassett said.
"She will follow him with her muzzle right on his shoulder, and she'll swish her tail and all the horses will stay back," she said. "Cali just understands. She just is a neat girl."
Others use the horses to strengthen the muscles their disabilities render weak, including 8-year-old Regan Engelhardt, who has a severe form of epilepsy.
Regan's epilepsy causes seizures ? sometimes up to 40 a day ? that weaken her core, so the volunteers at Triple Creek help her do specialized exercises on horseback to build muscle.
"We've seen it strengthen her core so much," said her mother, Suzie Engelhardt, of Redding.
On a recent afternoon at the ranch, Regan ? dressed in her favorite outfit, a pink tutu over jeans tucked into Spiderman rain boots ? gradually lifted her arms as volunteers flanked the horse on all sides for support.
"She couldn't do any of that when we first started," Englehardt said, noticeably amazed.
But Regan, too, has seen emotional benefits from the horses, especially her favorite, Joe.
"As soon as I tell her, ?horses,' she just runs to the car," Engelhardt said. "She definitely has a connection with the horses."
Some kids don't have physical or mental disabilities but just need a fun place to relax every week because of the stress in their lives.
Kylee Sloan, 11, will tell you she doesn't have a disability you can see, but she still needs horse therapy since her father died a few years ago.
"We just think it helps reduce the stress and tension in our lives," said her mother, Sadie Sloan, of Redding. "This helps me relax. They're beautiful, peaceful creatures."
Horse therapy is particularly effective for people in emotional pain because it takes them out of their head for a while, Newton-Cromwell said.
"Working with horses requires a person to just be in the moment, and so for people with emotional problems, that is a huge lesson to learn," she said.
Carla Bell started the program in 2003, but Reese took up the reins in 2009.
Technically each one-hour session costs $30, but Reese said most of the clients are on scholarships.
If you're interested, go to tcri.org.
About Alayna ShulmanAlayna Shulman has worked as a reporter at the Record Searchlight since graduating from the University of Oregon in 2010. In that time, she has covered county government, breaking news, healthcare and more.
Call for more information
530-527-9394
Triple Creek Therapy Riding and Rescue is a California non-profit organization that assists people toward achieving balance of
Mind, Body, and Spirit through Horses and other activities, with Christian values.
(All donations are for non Profit 501(c)(3)
Copyright 2015 Triple Creek Therapy Riding and Rescue.
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