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Nov 1, 2024
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer
“He just growls.”
When a group of school kids came out to the Divine Equine Therapeutic Riding Center, their leaders explained how one twelve-year-old boy was nonverbal. Cynthia Nell Ward, executive director at Divine Equine, and her staff took the information in stride.
In the arena, every time the boy pointed at the gate, they said, “Gate.”
They repeated this several times. After 10 minutes of browsing around the horses and hay, they stopped in front of the gate again.
The boy pointed and said, “Open gate."
His grandmother toppled over a hay bale trying to get to him.
“Did he just talk?” She couldn’t believe it.
“We call those types of miracles, ‘The horse does their magic,’” Cynthia Nell said. “And families get to see it.”
Another miracle at Divine Equine was one young woman who, at 27 years old, was grandfathered into the Angels of Care program and brought to the riding center for evaluation. When she arrived early for her appointment with her parents, she experienced a meltdown caused by the new environment. She began hitting herself and her mother and refused to get out of the car.
Someone suggested they bring a chair over to see if they could coax the young woman outside the car to sit.
Cynthia Nell had another idea. She fetched Sherman, a paint pony whose companion is named Williams.
“I told them, ‘We're going to get her calmed down quickly,’” Cynthia Nell said. “So I brought the horse close to the car for her to see and then quickly went under the arena cover. The minute she saw the horse, she calmed down and got out of the car. She was so excited, we had to slow her down! The joy and calmness were instant and we had a totally different young lady standing before us.”
Through Divine Equine’s Veteran & First Responder EFP Program, Cynthia and her staff welcomed in an angry young man who was in jeopardy of losing his relationship with his wife, children, and very nearly his personal freedom. Following the rules of a court-ordered program, he came to the Divine Equine staff with arms crossed and challenged them to “work their voodoo” on him.
What he discovered instead, was a chance to prove himself to the horses. At first, he thought they were stupid. One horse kept walking away every time he tried to approach.
Cynthia Nell asked him, “‘Are you breathing? Are you relaxing? Are you ready to jump at the horse? Horses are prey animals. They feel your heartbeat. They feel your respiration. They know whether you're safe or not. You have to prove to this horse that you want to be here.’ Now that the young veteran has figured it out, we can't get rid of him. It’s been three years now.”
He went on to reconcile with his wife, children, and himself.
Funding from the Texoma Health Foundation covers the cost of several professional services provided by Divine Equine, including Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy and Physical Therapy. Combined with other grants and its robust volunteer program, Divine Equine is able to serve over 60 students each week.
“It doesn't matter what your disability is,” Cynthia Nell said. “If the doctor says you can ride a horse, we have a saddle for you and we will make a plan to work with you.”
