Horse Therapy

From: Dmae Roberts
Length: 05:08

A girl with disabilities receives emotional and physical therapy through horse-riding. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Horse Therapy
From: Dmae Roberts

Roberts_244_8471_small At riding stables across the country, kids with disabillities are working with horses in a new kind of therapy that's both physical and emotional. There are about 650 riding centers in the U.S. and Canada that offer therapeutic horse riding to more than 30,000 people with disabilties. One such rider is eight-year-old Grace Kurlychek who rides her horse Dove at Ride-Able in Eugene, Oregon.

This piece aired on Living On Earth and was produced with funding by Hearing Voices through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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Piece Description

At riding stables across the country, kids with disabillities are working with horses in a new kind of therapy that's both physical and emotional. There are about 650 riding centers in the U.S. and Canada that offer therapeutic horse riding to more than 30,000 people with disabilties. One such rider is eight-year-old Grace Kurlychek who rides her horse Dove at Ride-Able in Eugene, Oregon.

This piece aired on Living On Earth and was produced with funding by Hearing Voices through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Broadcast History

Originally produced in 2002

Transcript

SOUND: DOOR OPENS AT A STABLE AND HORSES WHINNY

DMAE: A cold, cloudy day at a stable on a country highway just outside of Eugene. A petite, pretty girl with long brown hair and a riding helmut approaches her horse. Grace Kurlychek is eight and has a slight limp from a form of cerebral palsy that stiffens her legs. She watches shyly as her instructor hoists the riding gear.

GRACE: Well that's the saddle, those are the stirrups, and under there is the girth. Now she's lifting the reins over the horse's head.

DMAE: Instructor Barb Marina Krandall gets Grace mounted on Dove, a 16-year-old blue roan. Grace is eager to go, but Barb first makes her practice sitting tall and stretching. Grace seems more confident as she situates herself on Dove. Still she seems very small.

GRACE: I know a couple people that are afraid of horses 'cuz one of them is younger, and when she was riding a horse, sh...
Read the full transcript

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

At riding stables across the country, kids with disabillities are working with horses in a new kind of therapy that's both physical and emotional. There are about 650 riding centers in the U.S. and Canada that offer therapeutic horse riding to more than 30,000 people with disabilties. One such rider is eight-year-old Grace Kurlychek who rides her horse Dove at Ride-Able in Eugene, Oregon.

OUTRO: