by Chuck Williams, staff writer
The Towne Courier
February 27, 2005
EAST LANSING - Special Education students from Pinecrest Elementary are getting an extra helping of therapy thanks to their hard-working teacher, some big-hearted sponsors and a handful of horses.
Renee Olance's third grade class at Pinecrest Elementary makes a CATA bus trip to Mason every month for sessions in therapeutic horseback riding with therapist Bonnie DePue. "My kids need a special curriculum," Olance said. "They have cognitive-, speech-, language- and health-impairments."
In therapeutic horseback riding, DePue uses horses to teach concepts, such as left and right, and to improve motor skills. "These kids have sensory impairments," Olance, a teacher since 1978, said, "and this program uses all their senses. They feel the horses beneath them, and it helps them to learn and gives them input."
Bonnie DePue has run Children and Horses United in Movement since 1999. It is located in a 55 by 80 foot arena east of Mason on Columbia Road, and DePue sees 150 clients a week. She is certified by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association and is an occupational therapist. "We have some big dreams," DePue said. CHUM has outgrown its current facility and DePue is set on larger quarters in Dansville.
"We've done eight research projects these last five years with five different universities, all in the realm of therapeutic riding and medical issues. MSU and CMU are probably the two biggest universities we've worked with," DePue said. "In one of the research projects, we've explored the carry-over effect, for example.
"Adults with multiple sclerosis, osteo-arthritis, rehab clients, traumatic brain injury, motor vehicle accidents. Our clientele is wide - everything from small children to adults," she said.
Her youngest participant is 14 months and her oldest is 76. As an occupational therapist, she works with a range of patients such as post-stroke victims learning to walk again and scoleosis victims. "We are the only treatment that changed her condition. During the therapy, she went from a 76 degree scoleosis to a 40," DePue said.
For Pinecrest Elementary's Renee Olance, the service is important. "We can only come once a month, and I wish we could come once a week," she said. Each session is 45 minutes.
"I've never had anything but a positive experience," Olance said about DePue's program. Olance has brought her students to Mason monthly for the past four years all without specific funding from East Lansing Public Schools. "There are no funds from the school district. Of course I've presented it up to the superintendent, and they support the value in it," she said.
Instead of school system funding, Olance worked to develop sponsors in the community to financially support the program. "The East Lansing Kiwanis Foundation and the Ingham County Sheriff's Office, Mounted Division have been wonderful supporters for the last four years," she said. Olance gives credit to the parents for trusting enough to allow their kids to participate.
Concepts around the barn reinforce learning. Alphabet letters, posted on walls for example, provide targets. "When you get to the letter E ..." DePue will say, and therapy student horseback riders are instructed to perform a task. "It makes them think," Olance said. "First, they need to find the letter E and what that looks like. Then, they must get the horse to go there. And once it's there, they have to remember how to stop," Olance said. "So they're putting a lot of things together."
As a special education teacher, Olance spent considerable time preparing for this journey. "The amount of time it takes to put together proposals and find community agencies is immense. I've invested a lot of paperwork and outside-school hours because I believe in the program." Research into this brand of therapy, time investment and especially cost all present hurdles in preparing such a program, Olance said.
Hippotherapy, performed by a licensed therapist, and specifically using the horse as a tool to accomplish therapy, is another function at CHUM. Hippo is Greek for horse. DePue said, "If I'm looking at trunk mobility and stability, strengthening muscles and balance, then the horse is my tool to do that. It's also an easily gradable exercise. If you can stimulate the body, you can stimulate the brain."
Seventy percent of DePue's clientele is involved in therapy. "A lot of the things we do involve problem solving," DePue said. While four of Olance's students, with helpers, walk about the arena, DePue issues instructions. "You notice that we do a lot of things that where I'm asking them to solve problems. 'I want you to turn right' and understanding traffic flow. Those are all problem solving."
DePue also uses up to 50 volunteers per week. "For some of them, this constitutes volunteer hours. For others, it's a way to break out of their day," DePue said.
© 2005 Towne Courier
