MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - Horses with Hearts, a premier accredited riding therapy center focused on offering children and adults in the Eastern Panhandle a variety of special-needs and mental illness-based therapies, has expanded its offerings to include businesses and nonprofits in the area.
Typically, the therapy group, founded by Kay Barkwill in honor of a young girl with special needs who passed away before she was ever able to ride a horse as she had dreamed, offers three two-month sessions throughout the year, where groups of 30 to 35 riders with a variety of special needs - recently expanded to include addiction and mental health services - are able to interact with the animals and volunteers and build relationships that foster continued growth and provide education about the “remarkable things” the human body can do through this therapy.
However, as has been the case with many typical activities in the Eastern Panhandle, COVID-19 derailed the organization’s calendar.
“COVID-19 affected our start, but we are very blessed that because we are all volunteers, it didn’t hit us hard in the need area, but it did affect our wants because of the lack of funds,” Barkwill said. “But we were able to get kids on the horses, we were able to start those learning activities and we are going to build on that.”
One major way Barkwill said Horses with Hearts has been able to utilize the restrictions of COVID-19 has been through the use of a West Virginia Bridge grant that allowed the entity to offer local organizations and businesses introversive workshops focused on trust and strength within the work environment.
According to Barkwill, the workshops focus on helping business and organization leaders learn about each of their volunteers’ or employees’ strengths in the work environment and helping these leaders establish better, more cohesive teams by bolstering those strengths.
Stacie Rohn, executive director of the Girls and Boys Club of the Eastern Panhandle, vouched for the success of the workshops, stating that club employees were able to attend a workshop and find what each individual had as strengths, allowing her to see her team and strategize their strengths to benefit the organization as a whole and “make better decisions as a leader in general.”
Barkwill said the all-day workshops are interactive and were created to help groups learn about themselves and their teams while utilizing a variety of activities, including horse-related ones, to pinpoint these exact skills.
According to Barkwill, businesses and nonprofits interested in hosting their own workshops for their staff or teams can also feel good about giving back to the community directly, as 90% of what the group pays goes directly to Horses with Hearts, while the remaining 10% goes to Leadership Adventure to fund the program.
In addition to its training offering, Barkwill also shared a few updates on the Horses with Hearts property itself, including an additional four acres of land to the 30 acres the organization already possesses to be used for a parking lot, a playground and a hay storage and equipment building.
Barkwill said the organization also started its “Mini Hearts” program, sponsored by Procter & Gamble, where miniature horses are utilized to visit schools, hospitals and nursing homes and offer their own equine therapies that Barkwill said she believes will become a very big outreach opportunity for the program.
Horses with Hearts also added a “Horse Power Reading” program where two certified instructors in equine learning help children build their language and reading skills through interactions and games with the animals.
Barkwill said their hope is to have this therapy ready by the late fall or early spring.
Horses with Hearts was also able to raise $50,328 through the United Way campaign to build the additional hay storage building the organization had been working toward, and the facility is now up and able to hold 120 round bales of hay.
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