COVID hobbled one of qathet’s top programs: can you help?

HAY, DO YOU LOVE HORSES?: Rider Emily Anderson at the annual PRTRA Open House. The organization is looking for volunteers and is currently raising funds through a “Hay is for Horses” stocking stuffer campaign.

BY LESLEY ARMSTRONG

COVID-19 has impacted the Powell River Therapeutic Riding Association. Of the list of over 50 volunteers, many did not return since the three month shutdown of the program during Spring 2020.

Currently there are approximately 25 volunteers who show up weekly. They groom and saddle the horses in preparation for their work day, side walk with riders or lead the horses while a rider is being coached by Shannon Durant and assistant coach Claire Robertson.

Training for any volunteer position takes less than an hour, and no previous horse experience is necessary, only a willingness to be part of the team and the ability to walk up to 45 minutes on established trails.

The program has been in place since 1991 and follows training and rules as outlined by the Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association (CanTRA). CanTRA itself is a member of a large, growing international organization, Horses in Education and Therapy International. The benefits for the riders are multiple, and the scientific data bank on these benefits are growing.

Hours are flexible. You can volunteer for one hour or as many hours/days as you choose.

Riders range from four year old pre-schoolers to adults, and many students are transported from private and public schools.

For that hard to buy for person who has everything, perhaps a donation to PRTRA will warm their heart this Christmas. Since most members of the herd are senior citizens, a daily portion of grain and a flake of alfalfa goes a long ways towards maintaining their health and well being. They are the volunteers that just keep on giving. Each one has a sensitive and unique personality, just like the human members of this important PRTRA team.

Meet a new rider

She arrived at PRTRA’s indoor arena for her first lesson in her mother’s arms – unable to embrace this new experience with anything other than fear. She did not ride that first session, and maintained her tight grip while in her mother’s arms.

Second lesson, mom placed her in the saddle, then walked beside her with an arm on one thigh while she kept her head down and gripped both her mother’s arm and the arm of the sidewalker on the other side of her horse during that first ride. Her body constantly squirmed and fidgeted in the saddle throughout those first few rides.

Fast forward to week five. With a large beaming smile, she independently walked up the ramp to where her horse was standing patiently, climbed into the saddle, and for the duration of her ride, sat tall while her spinal column naturally swayed in sync with the movement her horse’s long striding walk created. Her mother remain seated, observing her daughter’s confident progress, and commented on how wonderful the people and horses were at this centre.

Convinced by the research she had read that equine therapy could help her daughter, and new to Powell River, she had put her daughter’s name on the Powell River Therapeutic Riding Association’s wait list.

Her daughter’s smile erupted into infectious belly laughs and giggles from the start of the lesson to the finish. Everyone around her was laughing and smiling. Her mother beamed and commented again how good the instructors and the horses were.

Meet a therapeutic riding instructor

She moved up from Gibson’s Landing, finding the southern Sunshine Coast not the right fit after growing up in Richmond.

The world of competitive eventing which includes show jumping and dressage, ended up being her passion when growing up.

Upon moving to Powell River, with her husband and two sons, she was initially employed by Inclusion. A friend told her about a PRTRA ad for a coach. She applied as it seemed the perfect fit for her combined life experience of working with horses and with people.

Her name is Shannon Durant. She is an intermediate level Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association instructor (CanTRA ) and all riders consistently receive the same firm set of expectations coupled with gentle humour and respect.

Shannon’s last working day at PR- TRA will be Dec. 12 as she is embarking upon a new career with the school district in the new year.

Meet a therapy horse

A pure bred Norwegian Fjord horse, he was born in California 19 years ago, and for sale after spending two years alone in a pasture in an Okanagan vineyard.

How did he come to live in Canada, and how did he come to be living alone in a vineyard? No answers to those questions. One thing is clear though. He has a wide-eyed and cuteas-a-bug’s-ear look to his blonde, short roly poly frame.

New this Fall to PRTRA, his name is Stormy. He is successfully learning how to change a behaviour of trying to nibble everything which comes within reach of his mouth. He is smart and he likes having a job.