Four-legged Facilitators

Through the years, research has shown the positive effects of animal-assisted therapy. Several types of animals are regularly used in schoolrooms across the nation to facilitate learning, as well as in healthcare and assisted-living facilities to provide emotional support to residents and patients. Trained dogs are sometimes used to help people with Parkinson’s disease walk more efficiently. A growing number of psychotherapists are beginning to use therapy animals too. In the Smokies, animal-assisted therapy programs include Mountin’ Hopes, a therapeutic riding center in Western North Carolina, where people with disabilities experience simultaneous exercise and therapy with a little help from a horse, a similar program in Knoxville, Tenn., and Human Animal Bond in Tennessee (H.A.B.I.T.), which is associated with the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine and relies largely on canines to make connections. 

Six-year-old Emma Randall is a cutie, and perhaps never more so than when she’s geared up in her horseback riding helmet and sitting astride Senorita, a handsome white horse she rides on a regular basis thanks to the therapeutic riding program Mountin’ Hopes. Emma has Down syndrome, a genetic condition in which a person has an extra chromosome resulting in problems with the way the brain and body develop.

“We do it primarily for her physical strength, her muscle tone, and her ability to follow instructions,” said Christine Randall, Emma’s mother. “We’ve been very pleased. Her strength has increased. Her posture is really good when she’s riding a horse. She corrects her balance herself when she’s kind of tilting over to the side a little. She’s very motivated to follow directions and to learn how to tell the horse to stop by saying ‘whoa’ or to go by saying ‘walk on,’ so it helps with her speech—both expressive and receptive. And she’s learning to use the reins, which is really neat.”

Mountin’ Hopes’ purpose is to facilitate physical, cognitive and emotional therapy for people of all ages by embracing “the unique gifts and challenges of each individual, encouraging personal growth through the horse and human relationship.” Mountin’ Hopes riders range from four years old to adults in their 40s. 

“The interaction between the horse and the person is a really wonderful experience,” says executive director Laura Nelson. “The rider gains strength, balance, confidence. It’s a very calming situation for people with disabilities.” 

Mountin’ Hopes leases horses from Creative Horse Connections, whose owner, Anne Westall, manages the organization’s riding programs—one out of her own facility just south of Asheville in Mills River, the other from the Horse Sense of the Carolinas operation in Marshall. The horses have been trained using the Parelli Natural Horsemanship method and are exceptionally calm—“bomb-proof” as Nelson puts it. Sudden movements, physical contact, and sounds don’t startle them. 

The economic downturn has taken a toll on the donations needed to keep Mountin’ Hopes operating. To generate revenue the organization’s board of directors elected to sell a 45-acrew farm in Mars Hill, citing the expense and commitments necessary to maintain it. The challenges have meant that the organization has dispensed with a costly drain on its expenses and strategically set itself up for the future including the possibility of buying a smaller farm or taking advantage of long-term lease options. Meanwhile, Nelson indicates that one of her goals for the coming year is to reestablish a Mountin’ Hopes program working with veterans, something the therapeutic operation has done in the past. About half of Mountin’ Hopes’ riders are on scholarships funded by donations to the organization. As donations have dwindled, though, available scholarships have, too.

“We’re going to try to spread that money out and keep as many riders coming back as we can,” vowed Nelson.

Numerous volunteers are needed to operate Mountin’ Hopes, as most riders require one volunteer to lead the horse and two “side-walkers” to tag along on each side of the animal for safety purposes and to provide added physical support when needed for riders to stay seated upright. Nelson and all the volunteers undergo training and are supervised by certified instructors. Principles of the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH) guide the program’s teaching methods, safety standards and all other aspects.

“Everything is very systematic,” said Emma’s mother, Christine Randall. “It’s not just, ‘put a kid on a horse and take her for a ride’.” Randall knows a thing or two about systematic therapy. She used to be a special education teacher and her husband worked in the field a long time as well. The couple has opened its Mars Hill home to two young men with autism who were Randall’s students and now are part of a therapeutic alternative family living arrangement. Autism is one condition that has been proven to benefit from equine assisted activities, according to a study by funded by the Horses and Humans Research Foundation. Children with autism between the ages of seven and 12 showed improved cognition, communication, and motivation after participating in specific activities. Riding, grooming, and interacting with horses had a noticeable, positive effect on study participants. 

On TRAK    

Across the Smoky Mountains and Tennessee state line is another therapeutic riding center, this one on eight acres of farmland nestled in the Karns community just northwest of Knoxville. This is the new home for the Therapeutic Riding Academy of Knoxville (TRAK). The family of late Knoxville veterinarian Bill “Doc” Butler, a local legend for his skill and his willingness to provide service even when animal owners couldn’t manage to offer much in compensation, granted use of the land.

TRAK owns three horses and leases several more, says Stacie Hirsch, TRAK founder, executive director and program coordinator. The TRAK facility includes indoor and outdoor riding areas, a tack room, and stalls. TRAK has several trained volunteers who assist in therapeutic riding sessions, and two more volunteer instructors are being trained. They should be ready to start in March when the riding program starts back up after the winter break, said Hirsch. As with Mountin’ Hopes, TRAK is certified through the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH) and the organization’s horses are of the right natural temperament and training to respond well in therapeutic situations. 

Hirsch worked for years as a speech therapist at various area schools before deciding to merge the two things she was skilled at and loved — speech therapy and horseback riding. It didn’t take too long, though, before she realized therapeutic riding had many more benefits than just speech related ones, so she underwent additional training and broadened her focus to include therapeutic riding for those with other physical and emotional problems. Bobbie and Michaela Lee, mother and 11-year-old daughter, are glad she did.

Michaela has cerebral palsy and has been riding now for more than two years, said her mom. “She’s always excited when it’s TRAK day. She can tell me the directions to get there. Once we get off the exit she gets excited. She tells me where to turn. Afterwards, she doesn’t want to leave the horses. She wants to love them to death, she wants to ride them again.”

Bobbie Lee says the pleasure her daughter gets from riding horses is a big reason she benefits from it as much as she has, explaining that Michaela doesn’t really like the conventional physical and speech therapy she also undergoes. 

“She’s very bored by it and gets aggravated with it,” Lee said. “This [therapeutic riding] is therapy in disguise. When she goes to TRAK, she gets all three—physical, occupational, and even speech therapy, but it’s all disguised, and it’s fun to her. She’s doing all this hard work but she doesn’t realize it. That’s the big advantage for the parent and for her.” 

Bobbie Lee attributes much of Michaela’s improvement in coordination, balance, and ability to relax her body to TRAK riding. Hirsch agrees. 

“Michaela used a wheelchair for long distances and a walker for short distances when she first started,” Hirsch said. “Within a year, she was able to leave both at home and her doctor credited it to her being on the horse.” 

Individualized treatment designed for each student is a key to TRAK’s success. In general, students who, like Michaela, have tense muscles and muscle spasms experience muscle relaxation and greater coordination riding slowly. On the other hand, students with flaccid muscles and little muscle tone benefit from a faster pace that causes their muscles to tense up and strengthen. 

Hirsch also still manages to get speech therapy into the mix, too. In one popular exercise, a student rides to a placard with a number or letter on it. The student must say the number or letter out loud and then maneuver the horse to a bucket with the matching symbol. The commands the students are encouraged to give the horses and the strategic conversation Hirsch and her volunteers initiate address many of the same issues found in traditional speech therapy.

Hirsch has a unique perspective on the therapeutic work she does. She contracted the flu in 1996 and developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. The ailment paralyzed her from the legs up. “I went through the process of understanding what it’s like being in a wheelchair,” Hirsch said. “I had to have fulltime care and eventually had to learn how to walk again. I try to take the same processes that I went through to become better and heal and share it with my patients,” she said. While acknowledging that her situation is different from that of her students she says, “I can identify how horseback riding helps.” 

Hirsch credits the prayers of her father, a Protestant preacher, with initiating her healing process. She says the process took a long time with many relapses but that she’s been essentially recovered now for nearly a decade. The TRAK website makes clear the religious underpinnings of Hirsch’s approach and states, “All therapies and counseling are provided with an underlying Christian influence where God can be recognized as our Ultimate Physician.”

A Good H.A.B.I.T.

It isn’t only horses that aid people therapeutically, of course. Dogs also do their part. Even cats, those preternaturally aloof creatures of self-satisfied solitude, occasionally get in on the act. 

Human Animal Bond in Tennessee (H.A.B.I.T.) is associated with the University of Tennessee (UT) College of Veterinary Medicine. This good H.A.B.I.T. was born a quarter century ago when educators associated with the vet school and the university’s College of Social Work teamed up to promote therapeutic uses for animals in the Knoxville community. Through the nonprofit volunteer program, volunteers take medically and behaviorally screened dogs, cats, and rabbits into area nursing homes, schools, residential treatment centers, cancer treatment centers, and other places to offer comfort, companionship, and therapy. 

Karen Armsey, H.A.B.I.T. program administrator, has been a H.A.B.I.T. volunteer for about eight years and served as the program administrator for six. She’s had five different H.A.B.I.T. animals and now has two. 

Armsey says H.A.B.I.T. has 120 active program sites, mostly in schools ranging from public and private school systems, pre-K through high school, special education, and regular classrooms. Volunteers and their animal companions visit most program sites at least once a week, and approximately 95 percent of volunteers work with dogs. 

“With pre-K through third grade, when they are working on their reading skills and comprehension skills, the dog gives them the opportunity to work on their reading out loud without judgment and with reduced stress,” said Armsey. “It helps them learn to read without having to read in front of a classroom. Studies have shown up to a 20 percent improvement on comprehension scores from this.”

Special-needs children can benefit from H.A.B.I.T. programs in special ways, as well. The socialization of simply petting a dog or brushing a dog, as well as verbal communication gains that can be gleaned by student’s issuing of verbal commands, are valuable activities. Armsey noted that such things can make or break a kid’s day sometimes and can help him or her focus more clearly on what’s going on. “With autistic kids particularly, dogs can help them focus a little more and not get as overwhelmed as they often can,” she said.

According to research cited by the Delta Society, a national non-profit organization and research foundation that helps people live healthier and happier lives by incorporating therapy, service, and companion animals into their lives, the presence of a therapy dog has been shown to lower behavior distress in children during a physical examination at a doctor’s office and may be useful in a variety of healthcare settings to decrease procedure-induced distress in children, including dentistry. 

Many of the same kinds of things can benefit the elderly and people with health issues. The Delta Society points to additional studies that state visits with a therapy dog help heart and lung function by lowering pressures, diminishing release of harmful hormones and decreases anxiety with hospitalized heart failure patients. Furthermore, animal-assisted therapy can effectively reduce the loneliness of residents in long-term care facilities. 

H.A.B.I.T. volunteers also help cancer patients relax right before their chemo treatments, for instance. And overworked, underpaid, and overstressed health employees are almost as happy as the patients are to see an H.A.B.I.T. volunteer and his or her pet. 

As with horses, dogs and cats have to have the right temperament to render animal-assisted therapy. Armsey says dogs have to “have good doggie manners and work calmly on the leash” and that some obedience training usually helps the owner and animal become a better team. 

Suzie Ferguson of Sevierville is a longtime H.A.B.I.T. volunteer. She and husband Roy take their two German Shepherds, Apache and Schatzi, and occasionally their cat Search, to schools and healthcare facilities.

“Apache goes to Children’s Hospital on Wednesday,” Ferguson said. “We call them doggie visits, and he just basically helps break the monotony of the hospital situation. Schatzi and Apache both do nursing home visits at Sevier County Healthcare Center and Fort Sanders Sevier Nursing Home. And both of the dogs do the Ruff Reading program at Boyd’s Creek Elementary. We have a first-grade class and a fourth-grade class.”

Ruff Reading is a popular program in Tennessee’s Knox, Blount, Sevier and Anderson counties. Teachers who have H.A.B.I.T volunteers and their dogs regularly visit their classrooms report that the children greatly improve their reading skills and gain self-confidence. 

Ferguson said her dogs mostly offer emotional support to the people they visit in other situations but also occasionally get involved in limited physical therapy oriented activities. “They brighten up when they see us coming. We have one lady in a nursing home that has instructed us to wake her up if we visit when she’s asleep. It’s that important to her. Even the people who’ve had strokes and can’t communicate, you can see it on their faces how they appreciate it.”

Mountin’ Hopes 828.545.6516  mountinhopes.org

TRAK  865.386.5970  traktn.squarespace.com

H.A.B.I.T.  865.974.5633 vet.utk.edu/habit/index.php