Brave Today

Stable View Supports Local Youth

Brave Today: Building Trust, Life Skills

By Nancy Johnson

“I’ve been very lucky; America has been very kind to me,” says Barry Olliff, who, with his wife Cyndy owns Stable View in Aiken. “When Cyndy and I lived in Pennsylvania, we wanted to give back, especially to youth, and we looked for a way to create an environment that is a little bit more caring, giving, and generous.”

In 2010, the couple, who now reside at Stable View, launched the Newlin Foundation in Coatesville, Pennsylvania to help children who were living at the poverty level to attain higher education. “The idea was not just to get them to college, but to get them to the right college and keep them there,” Barry explains. It took some time and re-evaluations of the program, but today the Newlin Foundation boasts a 75% college graduation rate.

“When we moved here, we decided to look into the local needs and found that Aiken clearly has a lot of social needs,” Barry says. The couple was kicking around ideas of how they might be able to help and use their spacious farm in the process. Barry mentioned his thoughts to Sammy Keats, a young intern at Stable View, who said her mother would love to get involved with a program to aid youth with social challenges.

Barry and Cyndy approached Janice Keats, who is a longtime riding instructor, and she confirmed what her daughter had said; she had always wanted to assist with a program like the one they described. “I have worked with kids for 30 years and really enjoy being around them. I am always trying to encourage them to be more confident and better people,” Janice says.

Janice promptly outlined Brave Today, a program for children and teens who are underprivileged or having a hard time dealing with normal social issues. In the peaceful, friendly outdoor environment of Stable View, participants engage in horse-related activities that stimulate their tactile senses to improve life skills. No prior riding or horse experience is necessary and there is no fee.

Barry notes that in designing the Brave Today program, he, Cyndy, and Janice researched a number of successful programs for underserved youth and people with social challenges, such as Detroit Horse Power in Michigan, Work to Ride in Philadelphia, and the Saratoga War Horse program. “We just wanted to get it started,” Barry says. “All we needed was a round pen, which Aiken County Farm Supply generously donated, Janice’s expertise and time, and a couple of horses.” Janice brought her seasoned large pony, Lollypop, and they borrowed Soli, a big chestnut dressage horse that resides at Stable View. “We are learning our way,” Barry continues. “Let’s see where it takes us. At Stable View, we don’t overpromise anything and are open to making adjustments.”

Janice coined an acronym to describe the program’s focus: DRESS4TLC – Decision Making, Relationship Skills/Respect, Empathy, Self-Awareness, Social-Awareness, Trustworthy, Leadership, and Communication. She set up the program, consisting of six weekly sessions, each two-hours long, to concentrate on these important life skills. The first group of participants completed the program in May, 2021.

“We work through all of the letters in DRESS4TLC, discuss their role in humans and then relate them to the horses,” she says. “As a group we talk about how we can work on the various skills with the horses in the round pen.” The participants found that their body language and communication were big factors in getting through to the horses.

“Trust has been a big issue for this first group of participants, so we focused a lot on that with the horses,” Janice explains. While working in the round pen, the participants developed a relationship with the horses and could see how they were gaining the animals’ trust more and more with each session. In the first five sessions, the participants worked with the horses in the barn and round pen. The final session included some riding.

Lollypop and Soli have quite different personalities, so Janice used this to illustrate the importance of dealing with differences. “Remember what we learned about leadership roles?” she asks the group. “Soli is more sensitive; he doesn’t need a strong leader, though you need to gain his trust. But Lollypop kept trying us in the round pen, right? She’s a bit pushy and dominant, so you have to be more of a leader to keep her in line.”

Janice was pleased with first group of Brave Today participants and is eager to welcome the next group soon. She notes that the next six-week program will be for younger participants and that one of the girls from the first group will be acting as a mentor to the next group. “That’s really what I wanted from this initial group and why I started with older kids,” Janice says. “I wanted to find a mentor for the next group.” Barry agrees, “We found this worked well in the Newlin Foundation. If you get youngsters to buy into what you are doing, they will come back and mentor future groups. There is nothing better than that generation to help that generation.”

Janice is asking the community to recommend potential participants for future Brave Today sessions and mentions a few other ways to assist with the program. “We are in need of a couple of small or medium ponies to use with the younger kids and could also use help with transportation for some of the participants.” In addition, she would love to have grooming kits donated for future participants.

Janice sums up her goal for Brave Today. “The biggest thing for me is to get kids to gain confidence in themselves and to manage in this world,” she says. “It takes a whole community and that’s what I want -- the community to work as a team to help these kids. There is an epidemic today of kids struggling in different ways and for different reasons. I am excited that this may lead to opportunities to work with other people to offer support for the kids in this community.”

“We need more of these types of initiatives,” Barry agrees. Although Brave Today is hosted at a state-of-the-art equestrian facility, riding is not the focus of the program. The Olliff’s vision for Stable View is that of a ‘gathering place,’ for a larger community than just the horse community. “We are hoping that we can find other local organizations where we could sponsor the children once they complete Brave Today. The kids should have something else to move into; any program that would fit their passion,” he says.