Horses: Good Therapy Is Not Far, By Jondi Gumz

COMMUNITY NEWS

Horses: Good Therapy Is Not Far

By Jondi Gumz

Ordinarily, the barns at the Monterey Bay Horsemanship & Therapeutic Center would be humming with activity this year of year, and 50 young people with autism would be eager for the opportunity to ride one of the horses. Because of Covid restrictions set by the San Andreas Regional Center, allowing only 16 students to visit each month, it’s pretty quiet.

Usha brought her daughter Malika for her 20-minute ride on Jack, who is a big shire. He’s 18 hands — a hand is four inches.

“We’ve been doing this for 14 years,” Usha said, lifting her daughter back into her wheelchair.

Now that the San Andreas Regional Center has eased restrictions, founder Anne Pearson wants to ramp up activity.

She has 300 beginners coming to participate in a Jewish camp from beginning of June to the end of August.

She needs volunteers. She needs staff. And she’ll probably need more horses — if the number of students returns to normal.

She did get money through the federal Payroll Protection Program, but with the restrictions, there was no way to avoid layoffs — “a heartbreaker.” No way would she give up – this is her life’s work. She comes from a riding background. Looking for a place for her adopted son, who is severely autistic and used a wheelchair, she found a place with horses on Old San Jose Road in Soquel, which he loved. At age 9, he left his wheelchair, and Founder Anne Pearson never needed it again, she says. She saw potential in the defunct dairy at the Monterey Bay Academy. A lot of clean-up and the generosity of Monterey Bay Academy turned it into the Monterey Bay Horsemanship and Therapeutic Center. It’s been 27 years. A big federal grant “got us going,” she says. Now, with a milestone birthday approaching, Pearson is counting on the community to help her keep the operation going. Some of the people on staff are like family — they are autistic and they’ve chosen to live with Pearson in Watsonville.

“MBHTC” page 8