Your Friends & Neighbors

Horses Can Help

Once riding was transportation, then it was a hobby. Now, as a lifelong equestrian explains, it can be therapy.

Dana Spett’s love of horses is, as she explains, almost in her DNA. She started riding at age 5 and continued lessons through elementary and high school. In college, she helped establish—and rode on—the New York University equestrian team. But it wasn’t until her daughter had a minor specialneeds condition that she learned how helpful horses could be.

Spett, now 55, discovered therapeutic or adaptive riding and became a certified instructor. And after seeing the positive impact it had on her daughter, she started a nonprofit organization called Pony Power Therapies, which now uses donated or rescued horses and an accessible 13-acre farm to help children and adults who need extra support. BERGEN asked the Mahwah resident about her mission.

What was your daughter’s condition and how did therapeutic riding help?

She was experiencing sensory integration dysfunction—her ability to receive and process information from the environment was impaired. She’d been receiving some traditional therapies, such as occupational therapy—which was wonderful and necessary—but she was starting to plateau and wasn’t motivated to go. I was researching alternative or complementary therapies and came across therapeutic riding. Traditional therapy combined with a heavy emphasis on equine-assisted services and nature was a course correction for her—she gained the sensory-processing ability she needs and is having a full quality of life.

What populations do you serve at Pony Power Therapies?

Our center is not diagnosis- or age-specific. Right now, our youngest rider is 3 and our oldest is 96. The diagnosis most heavily represented is the autism spectrum, both children and adults. We see people with cerebral palsy or mobility-related disorders, anxiety and depression, the medically fragile (oncology patients or individuals with lifelimiting or terminal diagnoses), at-risk children and adults, those with substance use disorder, victims of trauma or abuse. Others we serve include active military members and veterans, people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or multiple sclerosis or Huntington’s, stroke and traumatic brain injury survivors and human trafficking victims.

How do horses help your clients, physically and emotionally?

Horses don’t define you by your diagnosis. They’re interested in,“What’s your intention in the moment?” It’s a basic connection; I think that’s where the benefit lies. Equine-assisted services really have elements of traditional therapies, but wrapped up in an experience that’s multisensory and nature-based.

With COVID, are you seeing more clients with anxiety or depression?

Yes. One of the benefits is that they aren’t isolated—they’re connected, whether that’s with a horse, the staff or a volunteer. The horse is going to react to your energy, so it’s feedback in real time. I think it taps into our biological imperative to be connected with nature.

Your facility is barrier-free, meaning that all structures are wheelchair-accessible and pathways comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Was this a challenge?

Yes, but we think about everyone who might use our space and ask if it’s accessible to them. We’re trying to model for the community that there is a way to be fully inclusive.

Why keep your campus green and environmentally friendly?

We believe you can’t separate human, animal and environmental health. And because we work as a whole system, if one is out of whack, everything is impacted.

You’ve said you believe almost anyone could benefit from equine-assisted services. What are your hopes for the future of this field?

I’m getting my doctorate in social work and really investigating this. There’s anecdotal evidence that equine-assisted services can benefit anyone—I can’t find a population it doesn’t work with. Preserving these pure outdoor experiences is a key to good health, and we want to train people along those lines and try to elevate this activity to the mainstream.

Tell me about the impact your work has had and what it means to you.

You may have a child who is nonverbal in most scenarios but who, after sitting on the back of a horse for 10 minutes, will speak. Maybe it’s the sensory input, or the feeling of safety or relaxation. The horse doesn’t require language, so maybe not having that stress is what allows it to happen.

We’ve worked with people with profound mental health diagnoses—they’re feeling helpless. But connecting with an animal, feeling purposeful and being in the company of something living and breathing makes their scheduled appointment something to look forward to. It’s not anything we’re doing or saying; it’s driven by a person’s experience. My greatest joy is just being able to facilitate these experiences. We’re not performing any miracles—there’s nothing we’re doing that’s rocket science. But the byproduct is exciting! — Sarah Nolan