Horse therapy ranch to hold fundraiser at Rodeo Grounds

Guy Adams knows intimately the bond that humans can make with horses.

For the past five years, Adams and his wife have run Heart of the Horse Therapy Ranch, which aims to help children with disabilities, veterans and others through therapeutic riding.

On Oct. 3, the ranch will hold its second annual Cowboy Dinner and Dance fundraiser at the Clovis Rodeo Grounds. Tickets, available at www.heartofthehorse.org, are $35 or $280 for a table of eight.

The fundraiser will feature a barbecue dinner, a silent auction and live music by The Sonny Coelho Band.

In an effort to help as many people as possible, the ranch chooses not to bill anyone for therapy.

“We have a suggested $150 for eight sessions,” Adams said. “But that’s just a suggestion.”

The ranch runs almost solely on donations, which makes its two annual fundraisers crucial to the ranch’s ability to pay for its operating expenses.

Adams found that in many families with special needs children, only one parent is able to work. “So we want to make this affordable and be able to bless these kids, adults and veterans with special needs,” he said.

The ranch hosts 23 horses, with 11 of them being used for therapy.

The horse is an instrument, Adams said, that Heart of the Horse uses to help those with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida and other disabilities.

“It’s a great way to move their bodies without them even knowing it, and they can build muscle mass, and help themselves to get better,” he said.

Dakota May, a 14-year-old with cerebral palsy, has been coming to Heart of the Horse for more than two years.

“When we first started, he had to almost lie down on the horse — he didn’t have strong enough muscles in his core to actually sit up,” said Dakota’s father, David May.

After three or four months of therapy, Dakota was able to build enough strength to sit up during his weekly sessions.

“Now, he’ll sit up through the whole process,” David said.

For the five years the ranch has been in existence, it has grown steadily.

“In 2014, for just K-12 we did over 2,400 sessions,” Adams said. “A session lasts about a half-hour.”

The ranch is visited by roughly 45 to 50 children on average each week. Thirty families are presently on the waiting list to begin their therapy.

Fifteen-year-old Megan McKeon has been coming to ranch for more than four years.

McKeon was born in Latvia and had her left leg severely burned as an infant after her birth mother dropped a lit cigarette in her crib. After numerous surgeries, McKeon recovered but lost her left leg.

McKeon first learned of the ranch years later when living in the Central Valley with her adoptive parents, when her Break the Barriers gymnastics team spent a day at Heart of the Horse.

“We had a day out here just to hang out and ride horses because it’s very therapeutic for a lot of us,” McKeon said. “I liked this program so much I asked Guy [Adams] if I could come out here the next day.”

McKeon continued coming to the ranch since that visit and has seen an impact from her therapy there.

“I was burned at a very young age, so I have a lot of post-traumatic stress and ADD, ADHD,” McKeon said. “My brain doesn’t really work correctly sometimes and so having the horse — just kind of the rocking motion — gets my left and right brain kind of in motion, you could say, and communicating.”

Adams hopes to be able to continue serving those in need with equine therapy.

“We’re here to help all those with special needs — from 2-year-olds to 94-year-olds,” he said.

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 12:22 PM with the headline "Horse therapy ranch to hold fundraiser at Rodeo Grounds."