TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | m a y 2 0 1 6 6 6 More Than a Ride One horse farm is giving disabled patients a chance to look at life from a different angle B y C h r i s t i n e H a l l E melly has been riding horses since she was three years old, but she is not the typical rider. Emelly, who is now 16 years old, was born with a chromosome disorder and depends on a wheelchair for mobility. Once a week, she visits Self-Improvement Thru Riding Education (SIRE) Therapeutic Horsemanship's location in Hockley, northwest of Houston, to ride Broadway, one of the horses residing at SIRE. Just before her lesson, Emelly and her mother, Maria Martinez, arrived via ambulance. Decked out all in pink, Emelly prepared to ride Broadway by having her mother stretch out her arms and legs. She explained that they came from their home near Hobby Airport. "It was a one-hour drive, but it is worth it," Martinez said. Susan Hart, Emelly's occupational therapist, emerged from the supply room with a helmet to match her outfit. "Are you ready to ride Broadway, Emelly?" she asked. As Hart and Emelly's mother wheeled Emelly up the wheelchair ramp, Broadway, a brown horse, patiently waited while she was moved into place. Since it was established in Houston in 1983, SIRE has helped many people with disabilities ride. The riders range from three-year-olds all the way to a man in his mid-80s who had Alzheimer's disease, said Anthony Busacca, chief operating officer of SIRE. The organization has been at its current horse farm in Hockley since the mid-1990s, which was SIRE's first permanent home. It then acquired its Spring site in 2001 and Fort Bend site in 2006, Busacca said. In addition to its riders, SIRE also works with Texas Children's Hospital in an ongoing relationship that involves patients going out to SIRE, as well as working with the hospital on the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show that took place March 29 through April 3 of this year. Although there are already Texas Children's patients going out to SIRE, one of Pin Oak's goals is to create a designated fund to enable more children to go to SIRE that need the therapy, said Mary Jones, charity liaison and a member of the executive commit- tee for Pin Oak, who also serves on Texas Children's Leadership Cabinet for its Promise Campaign. The fundraising effort aims to help the hospital address current challenges and anticipate the present and future needs of patients. SIRE is also wrapping up work with The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Over the past several years, UTMB, led by Tara Patterson, Ph.D., an assistant professor specializing in rehabilitation science and kinesiology, has been bringing occupa- tional therapy students to SIRE as part of a $5,900 MS Entrepreneurial Grant, received from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, to study the benefits of riding for those with MS. Her study, titled "HOOT – Horses Offering Occupational Therapy," covered eight participants going to SIRE for two one-hour classes per week. Patterson, a horseback rider, had a passion for occupational therapy and saw many studies out there about riding, but not many specifically for multiple sclerosis. "People with MS are unique because there are a multitude of impairments they can get," she said. "In addition, most of the studies only looked at lower extremities for gait and balance, but I wanted to measure both upper and lower extremities." So far, Patterson has been able to look at data from two riders and plans to submit a paper on her results. …when you spend your life looking up at people, being able to look down from a horse is powerful. — ANTHONY BUSACCA Chief Operating Officer at SIRE Therapeutic Horsemanship Maria Martinez wheels her daughter, Emelly, through SIRE Therapeutic Horsemanship's stable in preparation for her horseback ride.

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