Wish List: Strides Therapeutic Horsemanship Center needs adaptive equipment, financial donations

Jill McCary has a favorite story.

A mother brought her son, a young man on the autism spectrum, to Strides Therapeutic Horsemanship Center, where McCary is the executive director and lead instructor. The young man wasn’t very verbal, but McCary had him counting to 20 as part of a warm-up activity.

She turned around to see his mother crying.

“Mom said, ‘I didn’t know he could count to 20,’” McCary recalled.

It’s the kind of small miracle that happens all the time at Strides, said McCary.

Based in Mesa, it’s the only Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International-accredited center in the Tri-City region, she said.

After starting in 2006 with one horse and one student, the nonprofit just picked up its 14th horse and drew nearly 40 students this year, with a waiting list of more.

“We’ve grown a lot,” said McCary, noting that the group has some specific needs to help it meet that higher demand. An adaptive saddle and a lift to help transfer students to horses top the organization’s holiday wish list.

It also needs to equip its arena for evening and cold weather riding and to bolster its ranks of volunteers.

And it could use donors to sponsor horses and contribute scholarship money for students.

Strides is the final nonprofit to be included in this year’s Holiday Wish List series. The Herald has highlighted a different group every day during December, from youth organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties and YMCA of the Greater Tri-Cities to Volunteer Chore Services, which helps low-income disabled adults and seniors age 60 and older.

Nearly every Herald reporter and photographer contributed to the series, and the community responded.

A group working to start a creative reuse center in the Tri-Cities, for example, saw offers of art and craft supplies and financial donations. Project Warm-Up, which makes and collects hats, blankets and other items for the needy, saw its shelves pile up with yarn and fabric.

And Elijah Family Homes will be able to support an additional family in its transitional housing program next year after being featured in a Wish List story, the executive director said.

Strides Therapeutic Horsemanship Center offers therapeutic horseback riding as well as hippotherapy, which is a physical, occupational or speech therapy strategy using horses. The group works with both children and adults.

McCary currently is the sole instructor, though the hope is to bring on more in the coming year so Strides can take on additional students, she said.

McCary has years of experience giving lessons and competing in equestrian events. She also spent about 12 years with the North Franklin School District, working largely in special education.

Some of the district’s life skills students attend Strides and Kadlec Health System also is set up to begin working with the nonprofit to provide hippotherapy for patients, McCary said.

The benefits Strides offers are clear, she said.

Like the young man who started counting. “It’s amazing,” McCary said. “We see miracles happen every time, every day.”

To volunteer with or donate to Strides, call 509-492-8000. Strides also is on Facebook and at www.stridesthc.org.

Therapeutic Riding of Tri-Cities, or TROT, is another area nonprofit providing equine-assisted activities and therapies.

They need a ramp to help students in wheelchairs get in the saddle.

TROT is online at www.trot3cities.org.

Read the Herald’s other Wish List stories at www.tricityherald.com/wishlist.

This story was originally published December 30, 2014 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Wish List: Strides Therapeutic Horsemanship Center needs adaptive equipment, financial donations."