Lessons Spur Riders’ Strength, Confidence
As her horse was led by volunteer handlers around the exercise ring at Broken Tree Ranch in Chatsworth on Thursday, Dolly Dorsey concentrated on keeping her balance.
Riding backward was no easy task, especially for the Canoga Park resident, who has multiple sclerosis. Dorsey, 62, laughed when someone pointed out that she was facing the wrong end of the horse.
“You think?” she said as she held on to the back of the saddle.
When Dorsey made one lap around the ring, she threw her hands up in triumph. “I did it!” she cried.
Dorsey is one of 40 people taking horseback riding lessons with Ride On Therapeutic Horsemanship, a 4-year-old program designed to improve coordination, self-confidence, strength, balance and mobility for the physically and mentally disabled.
“The horse’s movements mimic the way a person walks,” said Gloria Hamblin, director of the Ride On program. “It works the muscles and stimulates the brain. For people in wheelchairs, it is sometimes the only normal walking motion the brain gets.”
Hamblin’s students include those with cerebral palsy, brain injury, stroke and behavioral problems.
The ongoing program, one of 40 in the state, survives with the help of donations, volunteer handlers and groomers, and a fee paid by students who can afford it.
The program is seeking volunteers, experienced and novices, to help conduct lessons.
One student riding Thursday was North Hills resident Lloyd Anderson, 27, who suffered a brain injury when he was 15.
Anderson, who has taken lessons with Hamblin since 1989, said that riding has given him back the ability to hold himself upright and walk with a walker.
“You don’t get on a horse, get off and you’re cured,” Anderson said. “It helps you maintain and develop the things you already know how to do.”
“He means it’s a relearning process,” added his mother, Nancy.
“And obviously it helps with my memory,” Lloyd Anderson continued, using climbing onto a horse as an example. “If you remember to do it the right way, you get on correctly. If not, you’ll end up getting on backward.”
