Inside ARISE at Doc Marshall Farm: Horses, Healing, and Inclusion

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This is the Arise Exceptional Family Resources Podcast with your host, CEO Bruce Drake.
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Hey everyone, I'm Bruce Drake, the CEO at Arise and Exceptional Family Resources, and I am your host for today's Exceptional Talk on Disabilities.
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I'm really excited today to be joined by our assistant farm manager Becky Schaefer, who is here to discuss Arise at Doc Marshall Farm.
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Welcome, Becky.
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Hi, thank you for having me.
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Oh, it's a pleasure.
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We're thrilled to have you.
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It's going to be tough, I think, to fit all my questions into just 15 minutes, so we'll do the best that we can, okay?
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Sounds good.
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Uh so Becky, for people who don't know you, who aren't familiar with you, why don't we start with talking a little bit about you and then I'm going to ask you some questions about the farm?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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So I am a recreational therapist.
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I got my start at the farm as a kid, actually.
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I did our horsemanship program there when I was nine.
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Okay.
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Um, and then I volunteered off and on through school.
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And during college, I came back and started volunteering, and then I never left.
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Oh, that's fantastic.
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Where did you go to school?
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Uh SUNY, Cortland.
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And did you go to Cortland for recreation as well?
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I did, yes.
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I got my degree in therapeutic recreation there.
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Excellent.
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So nine years old, Becky has a love for horses, and that's how she ends up there.
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Tell us about that.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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I uh I had started taking less riding lessons when I was seven, and I loved horses, and it was a birthday gift, actually, for my parents to go to Arise at the farm for the horsemanship camp at the time.
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And I absolutely loved it, had a blast, and ever since then I knew I wanted to be a therapeutic riding instructor.
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So do you need a special when you talk about therapeutic riding instructors, do instructors need some sort of special certification?
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So not technically.
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There is a certification called Path International, which is the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship.
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And there it they have a certified therapeutic riding instructor certification.
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I am a certified therapeutic recreation specialist, but I also teach therapeutic writing or adaptive writing.
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Aaron Powell I heard a little bird told me that you're thinking about getting your certification.
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Yes, that is true.
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All right.
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So for the people who haven't been out at the farm, it's in Chitnango, right?
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Correct.
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And it's 85 acres.
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And I should mention, so there was a vet, uh gentleman by the name of Doc Marshall.
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I think his practice was in uh Manleus or Fayetteville Manlius area.
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And he had an 85-acre farm that he developed.
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And he, over the course of 25 years, in bits and pieces, he donated the entire farm to Arise.
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And we operate it to this day and hopefully forevermore.
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So, but for the people who aren't who've never been out to the farm, why don't you tell them a little bit about it?
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Absolutely.
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You know, we're extremely grateful to have the farm and the donation from Doc Marshall.
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So, as you said, it's 85 acres.
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On that property, we have trails for riding that we take our students on.
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We have a 5/8 mile dirt track which we can cart drive on.
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So we have a accessible cart that you can roll a wheelchair up into the back of and the horse pulls it around the track, and we can also ride on that.
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And then we also have a 7-8 mile paved track with benches every 25 yards, so you can walk and you know take breaks as needed.
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We have a accessible playground on the property as well, which is a very popular attraction.
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We also have an indoor arena, an outdoor arena, and two barns.
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We had an addition put on in 2020 that added three new offices and five additional stalls.
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So we currently have, I believe, 22 horses on the property, and that varies by season.
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We have more horses in the summer.
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Where do the horses go in the winter?
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They we have a couple that we own and then are leased out to other barns for the year just because we don't need that many horses year-round.
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But in the summer we are extremely busy with between our horsemanship program as well as lessons, we need additional horses to keep up with the need that we have for the riders.
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Aaron Powell So does Arise own the horses?
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It depends.
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We have a handful of horses that Arise owns, but I believe it's less than probably about five right now.
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I'd have to check to be sure.
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Um however, the majority of them are owned by private owners and freeleased to us.
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So the owners retain ownership of their horse and they cover the costs of Farrier, vet, or it's farrier.
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Trevor Burrus, Jr.
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Becky, I'm from Queens, New York.
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There's not a lot of horses down there.
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Trevor Burrus That is where they have horses, their feet grow continuously.
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So they need their feet trimmed every six to eight weeks.
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And some horses need shoes put on, and that's just a routine expense that's lifelong.
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And so uh it's extremely helpful when we have owners that are willing to freelease their horse to us and continue to cover those costs.
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Trevor Burrus So I'm sorry, I interrupted you in the middle.
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So it's farrier costs, it's veterinarian costs, and then it's feed costs at the We cover feed.
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Um however, they will also cover dentistry.
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Okay.
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Typically.
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This is a I'm sorry if it's a silly question, but how do we use their horses?
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Aaron Powell Yeah, no, that's not a silly question.
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So we have a number of programs that we run throughout the year.
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Our most popular and the most um well-known program that we have is our therapeutic riding program.
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And so we teach adaptive riding lessons or therapeutic riding lessons, the same used interchangeably there.
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And they are fully inclusive, so it's for anyone.
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Anyone can ride.
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We the youngest that we start is two and a half.
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The oldest, I the oldest rider I think I ever had was 90.
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And so it really is fully inclusive.
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That is pretty much the whole thing.
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Yes.
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Yeah, right there.
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And so our horses do a variety of work.
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We have a number of riders that do groundwork.
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And so they come in and they might not ride, whether it's um for medical reasons and they're not physically able to ride if they have contraindications such as uncontrolled seizures or Atlantoaxial instability, which can be dangerous if they were to fall.
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So they may do groundwork or cart driving, and so some of our horses uh do that.
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So what's groundwork?
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So groundwork can be a number of things, but it is mostly we work on having the rider understand the horse's behavior.
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They learn how to lead the horse, read the horse's behavior, they may take them through a pattern.
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We they might set up a pattern, lead them through the pattern, and learn how to work with the horse effectively.
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And what's what's the benefit to the individual who's doing the groundwork?
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Oh, it's significant.
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I love teaching groundwork lessons.
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I think it's it's really fun.
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You can see the horses are very because horses are prey animals, um, they are extremely in tune with our energy and the environment around them because instinctually they have had to survive in the wild.
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And so when you bring them into, even though they're domesticated, when you bring them into a uh situation, they're always aware of what's going on around them.
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And so I love using it with riders who may be more prone to anxiety because the horse is able to help the rider regulate their own emotions.
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And so if the people often talk about horses as mirrors of our own emotions.
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Um, and so if you're really anxious, your horse is going to show some anxious behaviors typically.
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And you can use that, that is when I come in and teach grounding skills, mindfulness skills, and horses give off behaviors then where they're able to uh show the release of stress.
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And so the rider individual is then able to see that they are helping the horse and then actually they're helping themselves lower the anxiety level.
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Aaron Powell So what's a behavior that a horse would express that shows that it is relieving stress?
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So it can be it's a there's a wide range of behaviors that you'll see that I would teach as we do it.
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But blinking, yawning, licking and chewing, they might drop their head.
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Uh there's a lot of different behaviors that you'll see.
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Aaron Ross Powell I just I I really do think I could talk about this forever.
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I'm so fascinated.
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Oh, absolutely.
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But we only have 15 minutes.
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So let me move a little bit more.
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So what are the what are the prerequisites, right?
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I know you said that we have people from two and a half to ninety who have come.
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Are there any prerequisites that that the riders have to have in order to participate?
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No.
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The there's an application online, so they would have to fill out an application, and once that's completed, it is sent in to our business manager who goes through to confirm funding, whether that's self-pay or through an agency.
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They will have to have a doctor's note to sign off that they are cleared to ride horses.
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And we do have a weight limit, so that is anything above that is at our discretion.
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What's the weight limit?
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Our weight limit is 180.
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I'm out.
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Sorry.
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I'm out, folks.
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Um and so anything above that is at our discretion.
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And then we offer for anyone over our weight limit, we offer groundwork or cart driving.
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Okay.
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Now I've I've seen pictures and I've been there when you have people who utilize wheelchairs who are who are riding on horses.
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How does that work?
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Absolutely.
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Um so when we have individuals that use wheelchairs and they come to ride, they can either, it depends on the individual, but we either assist with the transfer.
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Some people are able to transfer themselves right onto the horse because of the we have a ramp.
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So the horse walks up to the ramp, the rider goes right up the ramp, and they can transfer pretty much parallel onto the horse.
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So sometimes that looks like there's a leader always holding the horse at the head, there's somebody on the opposite side of the horse helping them onto the horse from the other side, and then there can be one or two people up on the ramp assisting with that transfer as needed.
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Aaron Powell So let's talk about so while people are doing the therapeutic riding, whether it's on a trail or around the track, what what does that setup look like?
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Are they just kind of can complete control of the horse on their own or do they have assistance from staff or how does that work?
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What does that look like?
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Aaron Powell It really depends on the person.
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Um, for some, their goal is independence.
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And so we are, you know, in general, we are always working towards as much independence and we try to provide as much autonomy as possible for all of our riders at the farm.
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And for some individuals that may be learning how to steer and ride independently, and for others, we're working on, you know, trunk control or fine motor skills.
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And so for them, it may look more like a leader and two sidewalkers walking next to them to help provide support.
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Aaron Powell And who are the sidewalkers?
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We have we could not run our program without all of our fantastic volunteers.
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So typically our sidewalkers are volunteers.
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And do they have training?
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They do.
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We do all training on site.
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And so volunteer, the volunteer application is online.
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We are always looking for volunteers.
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You do not have to have any experience.
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We will train you when you come.
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And you can do anything from work in the barn to assisting with signs and the same thing.
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You say work in the barn.
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Are you talking about cleaning out the stalls?
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I sure am.
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Is that a nice way to say that backwards?
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It's always my volunteer, I'm not going to be tricked into cleaning out the stalls, am I?
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I mean, if you would rather sidewalk, we can probably make that happen.
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So about how many volunteers does the farm currently have?
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I don't know off the top of my head, I would say about 15.
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Okay.
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I do want to just take one second to ask about the other animals out at the farm because I know we have horses, but I think we have some other animals as well.
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Aaron Ross Powell We do.
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We have chickens, a miniature donkey, Matilda, who is quite a fan favorite.
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We have cats, a rabbit, and a tortoise.
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So a number of animals.
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It's like the zoo out there.
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It is.
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I was uh on a call with someone the other day, and they like, I I have currently have a rabbit running around my feet because they were calling from the farm.
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Yes.
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Farm is open to the public generally, or the playground is open to the public generally, and the track is generally open to the public?
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So the playground and the paved track are open to the public.
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The barns are not open for anybody to just walk in, but we are more than happy if you want to call and set up an appointment to come in and you have questions about something, we are more than happy to do that.
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We just don't have it open for everybody to walk in just for safety and due to lessons going on and everything.
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Aaron Powell Sure.
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Is there anything you would like to tell the general public who comes out to visit the playground or likes to walk the track about their interactions with the horses that might be out?
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Aaron Powell Yeah, absolutely.
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You know, we totally understand.
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We obviously we love horses and animals as well.
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And we are more than happy to have you admire them from afar.
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Our horses are on very strict diets and a lot of them have health issues because they're all generally older.
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Um, and so we ask that people please not feed the horses and not go up to the fences and just stay on the paved track and admire them from afar.
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Great, great.
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I know that's a very important issue, and I know we're gonna be putting signs up to that effect.
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Becky, uh honestly, I think I think we could fill a couple more episodes about the farm because there's so many other questions I have, but that's gonna be it for today.
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So thank you so much for finding the time to talk to us.
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Ladies and gentlemen, that was Arise Exceptional Family Resources Assistant Farm Manager Becky Schaefer.
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As always, thank you all for listening, and we hope you join us next time as well.
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Thank you for having me.
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This has been the Arise Exceptional Family Resources Podcast with CEO Bruce Drake, recorded and produced at the WCNY public broadcasting studios.
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For more information, visit our website at contactefr.org.
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You can also follow us on Facebook.
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Thank you for listening.