The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting every person on the planet, including those most vulnerable among us. Some individuals, who because of disability — mental or physical — had been receiving special services, are now sheltering in place either at home or in group homes.
The pandemic has not only severed vital lifelines to social and therapeutic services for the disabled, but has financially impacted those programs upon which they heavily rely. A few local programs that have been affected by the recent business closures include the Santa Ynez Valley Therapeutic Riding Program and Hidden Wings of Solvang.
For 12 years Hidden Wings has offered a place in the Santa Ynez Valley where young adults with autism spectrum disorders are accepted just as they are. Here they receive social, emotional, artistic and physical activities — in the company of their peers.
Hidden Wings President and co-founder Rev. Jim Billington said it would be catastrophic to cease offering his program to his clients, most of whom are lonely and isolated — lacking social skills that connect them easily to people.
Billington has managed to continue offering program services to his clients, remotely, during the pandemic. Classes via Zoom are offered three times a day, five days a week and include exercises, cooking, art appreciation and social skills.
At present, Hidden Wings is in the middle of rehearsing for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, where clients are working on learning lines, creating sets and sewing costumes from home.
Billington explained that for people on the autism spectrum, life can be lonely, but technology has provided a lifeline.
Hidden Wings is currently seeking assistance from the community, requesting artists, craftspersons, poets, writers and others, to consider teaching with the organization. Billington says the young people in his program would love to learn a new skill or trade.
Want to help?
For those who would like to donate their creative skills at Hidden Wings, contact Jim at 805-705-3918 or email him at jim@hiddenwings.org
Santa Ynez Valley Therapeutic Riding Program has launched a donation campaign on Facebook, calling for any and all sums to keep the program in operation during the quarantine. Donations can be made online at www.syvtherapeuticriding.org. Donor, Alice Gilaroo, will generously match funds.
In the saddle
Unique among therapeutic riding programs on the Central Coast, the Santa Ynez Valley Therapeutic Riding Program provides a place where four-legged friends – as well as two — are welcomed just as they are.
The program, which uses state-of-the-art therapeutic riding services, caters to hundreds of special needs clients that are as young as three years old and some well into their 80s.
Visiting the horse facility on Refugio Road in Santa Ynez before the COVID-19 outbreak, a visitor would have seen young and old clients happily feeding, bathing, brushing and, finally, mounting horses – some via a mechanized lift.
Now the arena remains empty.
Although children and adults are desperately missing their riding program, the program's operating budget must still be addressed.
Before the recent closure, the program operated through a combination of grants, tuition from those able to pay, and community fundraisers for 70% of students who receive need-based scholarships.
Robin Serritslev, executive director of the program, is concerned that community fundraising events like the popular Cowboy Ball, will be severely impacted by the shelter-in-place orders. And, she realizes that the individual donor base has concerns about their own shrinking retirement funds, unemployment and business closures.
Even with government assistance for nonprofits, which is still unclear, Serritslev says the program will still need $50,000 this year to stay afloat.
She said that $11,500 per month is needed to operate the program even now, when not serving clients. Horses require hay, supplements, cleaning and exercise — whether being ridden or not.
At this time, a basic staff as well as volunteers are caring for the horses with the hope that the program will still be able to serve its clients when quarantine orders are lifted.
When students are allowed back, a streamlined budget of $22,000 per month will be required to safely run the program and keep clients with varying abilities riding horses, as well as keep horses healthy and sound.
The program will also need certified therapeutic riding instructors, barn staff, as well as a fleet of volunteers who maintain horse and rider safety by walking alongside each horse during a lesson.
One program client, Marie Stoll, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2004, has been a rider with the program since 2007. Of all the therapies she has tried, Stoll said the Santa Ynez Valley Therapeutic Riding Program has been the most effective for her M.S. — both for her physical and emotional health.
When she’s on a horse, she said she doesn’t feel handicapped. When she’s riding, she doesn’t think about what she cannot do.
In her years in the program, she’s formed a close bond with the instructors and the volunteers, but most importantly with her special horse, Hawk, who she has been riding since 2010.
A younger student in the program who is also missing her rides, is six-year-old Emmarie Wilson. According to her mom, Alicia Wilson, Emmarie’s favorite time of the week is when she’s astride her beloved horse at the center — Baard.
Born premature, at only 25 weeks, she received a subsequent diagnosis of cerebral palsy.
In the three years Emmarie has been in the program, Wilson said her daughter has made enormous gains both emotionally and physically and describes her little girl as being extremely determined.
Wilson said when Emmarie sees other riders at the program, she wants to perform the same movements.
Recently, Emmarie had begun performing gymnastics on Baard, which means she can stand on Baard’s back while the horse moves. This has given her confidence enormous boosts, Wilson said.
She is learning to be a real rider, and proudly uses her lesson time not only for therapy, but to gain mastery in handling horses.
Emmarie’s mother is thrilled with her daughter’s gains in core strength. Her cerebral palsy resulted in a floppy core, and being astride a horse results in improvement in this as well as balance and coordination.
Wilson said the whole family misses coming to Therapeutic Riding, where Emmarie and her two brothers are welcomed by staff and volunteers.