by Sarah Marsh
I was first introduced to Therapeutic Riding as a freshman at St. Andrews when Liz walked up and said “You need to volunteer with the Therapeutic Riding Program.”
“Okay…what’s that?” Prior to coming to St. Andrews I had never been exposed to the world of Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies, but I was quickly hooked. There is something that happens in a therapeutic riding lesson that is just magic. There is no other way to explain it.
I continued to volunteer in the therapeutic riding program throughout my time at St Andrews, graduated with a degree in business, and headed off into the working world. Five years later I was burned out. Though I had the opportunity to work for a couple great companies and learned a lot professionally during this time, I also learned about myself personally. We spend so much time and energy at our jobs that for me, a paycheck wasn’t enough. I needed to work somewhere that fed my soul, not just my bank account.
A wise friend who is a professor at the University of New Hampshire gave me the advice to figure out when I was happiest, and see how I could make that work. I realized that when I was happiest was when I was volunteering, specifically when I was volunteering with Therapeutic Riding Programs. So I began to pursue certification, and after that things began happening quickly.
Once I committed to making this change, I jumped in with both feet. Four months after enrolling in the certification class at UNH, I had passed my registered instructors exam. I sent out a resume on a whim, more to gauge what areas I needed to improve to be an attractive candidate to future employers than with any expectation that I would be hired. Two weeks later I accepted a job offer from Sagebrush Equine Training Center for the Handicapped in Hailey, ID. Two weeks after that I was driving across country to a job and a state I’d never seen. A week after that I was teaching full-time, 28 lessons a week! My head still spins thinking about that.
The next two years were some of the richest of my life. I worked as an instructor, the Volunteer Coordinator, and Assistant Program Director for Sagebrush. We operated four days a week and had about 130 riders per session. I learned so much being fully submersed in working full-time at a therapeutic riding program, but the most important lessons I learned were from my students.
I could share countless stories of perseverance, determination, and overcoming overwhelming odds to succeed. I was blessed to cross paths with some truly amazing people and for a few short years, I got to be a part of their stories. I learned to appreciate every moment, because you never know when your life can completely change in the blink of an eye. I learned that no matter what happens you can always find something to be grateful for, no matter how small. I had never experienced anything so humbling in my life.
I was eager to give back to these participants for all that they had taught me, and how better to do so than by becoming the best instructor I could be. I began preparing for Advanced Certification. I sought out any educational experience I could to learn more about the disabilities I most commonly encountered, about general teaching and learning principles, and anything I felt would enrich the services I was able to provide to my students. But something was still missing.
In the summer of 2010, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Marty Clements, a PT who was preparing to get certified in hippotherapy. She was assisting in a lesson with an adult rider with Multiple Sclerosis I had been working with for two years. It was one of those lessons that while it was enjoyable and while we were achieving measurable goals and objectives, it still left me feeling like I wasn’t doing enough, like I was letting her down because I couldn’t do more. The first time I worked with Marty it clicked – this was what was missing! Though she had not been utilizing horses in a therapy setting for very long, Marty was able to draw upon her knowledge and experiences to quickly evaluate where some of the participants main challenges lay and come up with exercises incorporating the horse and horse’s movements to help her address some of these areas. This was what I needed to give back more, to give back better than I was. I realized with a better understanding of the human body, how it ideally works, and how to address issues that may arise when it’s not functioning in the ideal state, I could help not only physically involved riders, but also have better tools to assist able-bodied riders as well.
So here I am a year later. I have left behind a job, riders, and a place I loved to keep pursuing this dream of doing more, of giving back better. I have moved to Bozeman, MT in preparation to get my doctorate in Physical Therapy. I am a volunteer instructor at Eagle Mount here in Bozeman and have been accepted at Montana State in the pre-physical therapy program so I can complete the needed pre-requisites. My goal is to be accepted into the Physical Therapy program at the University of Montana for the fall of 2014. It will not be a short road or an easy one. I am working two jobs to save to go back to school for an education I hope to have completed six years from now. Had you asked me three years ago before I started this journey if this is where I would be, I would have laughed. But I it’s not about me. I am doing this for the Anns, the Lilis, the Zacs, the Reannas, and all those I haven’t met yet. I am doing this because I have a responsibility and a need to give back to those who have taught me so much, those who have made my life better.
It always amazes me to look back and see where this journey started. I had the opportunity recently to experience that journey come full circle when I traveled to High Hopes in Connecticut for Advanced Instructor Certification. It was very special to me to get to see Liz again now that she is the Program Director at High Hopes. She started it all ten years ago by recruiting me to volunteer in the program at St. Andrews. Adding to the uniqueness of that moment was the fact that one of my evaluators was Lorrie Renker, the founder of the Therapeutic Horsemanship program at St Andrews. So in a long and round-about way, I owe this all to the Equine Program at St Andrews. You never know where donating an hour a week will lead…
