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TeachingMY STUDENTS : HOPE SPRINGS EQUESTRIAN THERAPY
Pennsylvania | Hope Springs | Georgia | Illinois
My affiliation with Hope Springs started kind of by accident. After my working student position ended, I vacillated for about nine months before deciding to stay in PA. By then it was fall of 2002, and fall is not a great time to build a horse business. When I saw the ad for a therapeutic riding instructor in Jan, I was bored, so I answered. Despite my lack of experience with handicapped students, Elena Shaffer hired me. I figured I'd work for her until my dressage business took off. My dressage business took off pretty quickly, but for two years I gladly made time for my Hope Springs students. I want to be very clear here – I do not teach severely physically handicapped riders. I leave that to the experts I work with. My students need to learn horseback riding in a non-traditional wrapper, and frankly I don't teach them all that differently than my non-Hope-Springs students. They are enthusiastic and want to learn, that's all any teacher can ask of any student. In summer 2004 and 2005, I ran summer camp for Hope Springs. We had a wonderful time. We did all the things a "regular" horse camp does – we rode twice a day, did a service project for the farm, even vaulted. I stole from my Unmounted Seat lesson for, Kristen Chelmow, who has mild CP on her right side. She used the scales to see how her weight distribution changed from right to left as she used her reins. |
My only regret to getting a place of our own was having to leave Hope Springs. I worked with Hope Springs Equestrian Therapy from March 2003 until Nov of 2005, when we got our barn and my plate became too full.