Published: August 30, 2008 02:55 am            

‘I’m a superstar!’

Horseback riding program combines therapy with fun for little Jadyn Deal

SMITHTOWN — By Debra Minor Wilson

Times West Virginian



SMITHTOWN — Six-year-old Jadyn Deal sits high atop Mick, a patient, former barrel-racing horse. They’re quite a pair. She tells him what to do and he calmly obeys.

Once in a while (OK, every few minutes), Jadyn will throw her little arms way up high in the air and crow, “I’m a superstar!”

And she is.

Jadyn Rae is the daughter of Tami and Brian Deal of Masontown. She and her brother, Owen Ray, were born March 15, 2002 — 12 weeks premature.

She weighed 2 pounds, 11 ounces, and was only 15 inches long.

Owen had no ill effects from his early birth. He and Jadyn are in first grade at Valley Elementary in Arthurdale.

“She’s doing wonderful, excellent in school,” her mom Tami said. “That’s the thing. It’s just that little bit of stiffness in her legs. Other than that, she’s doing remarkably well.

Before she was a year old, her parents noticed some stiffness in her legs. The stiffness kept Jadyn from learning balance. She underwent a risotomy last December at St. Louis Children’s Hospital to help correct the problem.

“They clipped 60 percent of the nerves in her spine to take away the stiffness in her legs,” Tami said.

“That was probably the best thing we could have done for her. Scary, but the best. We won’t see the full results until she’s about 10, but the progress she makes from week to week is amazing.

“She just needs therapy to walk independently. It turns out that horseback riding is one of the best therapies for that. The walking pattern of the horse replicates that of a human. It’s perfect.”

What wasn’t perfect was that horseback riding therapy just isn’t to be found in this area ... except for here.

“She wanted to do horseback riding and she gets therapy at the same time. She loves this. She looks forward to it every week.”

Since the end of June, the Deals have traveled from Preston County every Tuesday so Jadyn can team up with Mick the horse and the rest of the team at On Eagle’s Wing Farm on Opekiska Ridge Road.

The therapy has helped even after just these few weeks, Tami said.

“We’ve already seen progress with her balance. She’s starting to let go of her walker and do more on her own.

“Eventually she will do everything independently. This therapy is just building up to it.”

“She loves interacting with the horses. She loves being independent. This is something her brother doesn’t get to do.”

Right now, she’s learning basic riding techniques.

“She’s working with a lot of balance issues while she’s on horseback,” said her dad, Brian. “Reaching, throwing, bending. They make it fun for her.”

“Four, three, two, one ... stop,” say the team of owner Carol Petitto, Erica Janes, Patty Harman, Edna Rothwell and Chris Rea, as Mick slows down by a mailbox. Jadyn leans over and plucks a brightly colored postcard from it.

Mick stops and the team turns Jadyn in the saddle to face backwards.

One more time around the ring.

“Four, three, two, one ... stop,” this time stopping by posts in the fence, where soft plush toy puppies are attached.

Jadyn leans over and picks them up and places them on the horse’s rump. Farther around the ring, she places each in a bright plastic basket.

Fun? Of course. But she’s also learning balance and coordination.

“This isn’t covered by our insurance,” Tami said. “This is the only place we found find that does this. We looked everywhere. So many little kids would benefit from something like this.”

Jadyn doesn’t mind posing for the camera and hamming it up for Mom, Dad and Owen, who are watching from the sidelines.

“She’s very outspoken. This is perfect with her personality,” Tami said.

“She has a lot of trust with Mick,” Brian said. “If you set her on something stationary at that height, she’d be much more afraid than being on a horse.”

“We can see how good her balance has become. She’s straightened her back. I guess you have to have good posture and balance to stay on a horse.”

“So she’s had to start pretty much from having no balance, working her way up from scratch.”

Carol Petitto owns On Eagle’s Wing Farm. She and Patty Harman and Erica Janes are certified instructors with the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association.

“I’ve always wanted to help with a therapeutic riding facility. We didn’t have one in the area. Dr. Dennis Smith, academic dean at West Virginia University, encouraged me to start a program. I was waiting for someone else to do it, but why couldn’t I?

“I give him all credit for my start.”

From there she underwent training and mentoring to become certified with the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association.

She mentored with “a very kind person” in Maryland, traveling there once a week for almost a year. She was tested on riding skills and teaching.

“The objective of therapeutic riding, which is what this center focuses on right now, is to teach riding skills. Technically we’re not supposed to say we provide therapy, but obviously we do.

“There’s another program that actually uses a horse as a therapy tool (for occupational, physical and speech therapies), but that’s not necessarily geared to teaching riding skills,” Petitto said.

“The three of us, none of us are trained in any of those fields,” she said. “But the training we received to be therapy riding instructors kind of involves the same elements.

“Our goal is to make our riders as independent as possible.”

A big part of the team is the horse, she said. Five of the farm’s 32 horses rotate through the program.

“The horse has to be trained to adjust to anything that might come up. A lot of horses might be kind, gentle horses, but not all are suited for this.

“Mick is on loan from a woman in Grafton. He absolutely is perfect. Nothing bothers him.”

Riding helps in many ways, she said.

“It helps with all types of physical disabilities, and cognitive, sensory and any kind of mental difficulty. We don’t focus on equine facilitative mental therapy here, but that is part of the package.

“The self-esteem, the bonding, the joy that comes from riding provides stimulation and motivation. I’ve seen some dramatic things.

“We do all ages, everything. Physical, emotional ... sometimes it’s a total package. We have one woman (with a neuromuscular disorder) who’s motivated to ride. She’s not even ridden yet but she can’t wait.”

In the meantime, the woman is practicing on good old Sunny the Equicizer horse.

Sunny was a boon to Jadyn when she first came to the center.

“She was absolutely petrified when she first started. Sunny bridged that. Now she’s an old hand.”

“Sunny is a big deal. His girth is the same size as a real horse. The Equicizer was invented by Eclipse Award-winning jockey/inventor Frank Lovato Jr., who was mentor for the movie ‘Seabiscuit.’

“It’s for someone who doesn’t have good mobility.”

“‘On Eagle’s Wing’ is my favorite hymn,” Petitto said. ”There is a spiritual, mystical kind of thing. Since Everything I’ve done since I decided to do this, everything seems to have fallen into place in an amazing way.”

What started as a private farm certainly did not mean to end up providing therapy lessons.

“We did trail riding and our own thing. You don’t need a bunch of special stuff but you do need certain things.

“We excavated for an indoor arena. Never in a million years would I have wanted an indoor arena. I just didn’t need it. We were trail people, not show people.

“But I saw the need for it,” to give lessons in bad weather, she said.

And while the program focuses on children, adults are gladly included.

“We have a 78-year-old who rides. She rode little bit in the spring, but she’ll hit it full force soon. It helps all ages.”

It’s all part of meeting standards for the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, of which she is a member.

“By 2010 I have to be a premiere accredited center, which will include having an indoor arena.

“We welcome volunteers. Right now we can’t take on any more riders. In the fall we’ll average 14 a week. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is.”

E-mail Debra Minor Wilson at dwilson@timeswv.com.

        

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