Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
SPECIAL NEEDS students from Lakeland Star Academy are given a riding lesson by Sami Kussard, standing front, of the Scholl Community Impact Group and volunteer Jeanne Joseph, walking with horse on left, on Tuesday morning in Winchester. The program offers an "outside the box" method of teaching special needs kids life skills.
By CHARITY SMITH
WINCHESTER, Wis. - A horse farm in Winchester caters riding lessons to children with special needs. The Scholl Community Impact Group's equine therapy program is geared toward helping kids on the spectrum learn to thrive.
Program director Lenelle Scholl has mirrors all around the arena so the kids can see themselves on the horse and adjust their posture. The horse reigns are marked with different colors so that the kids know what area to pull from, and letters are posted around the arena to help students learn the alphabet.
Scholl opened the program as a nonprofit in 2009, but had been working with special needs kids and horses for 40 years. She said she was not expecting the program to take off like it has. According to Scholl, students have a tendency to open up and feel more relaxed when they are at her farm than in the classroom.
"When you are grooming a horse, or riding a horse, or cleaning a stall, you get very relaxed. When you get relaxed you open up," she said. "You learn discipline, dedication, and your going to do this. Than you feel better about yourself so you just relax."
She said the program teaches following directions and the kids become more responsible in the home and school. The program rules are posted and must be followed, she said. The rules include things for safety such as wearing a helmet, no fighting, and calling out "horse coming through," when moving a horse. They also include using please and thank you as it is just good manners, she said.
Scholl said her horses don't even respond unless you say please before the command. The horses must also be thanked for something. She said that when animals are treated with respect, they are going to respect you.
Scholl said if a student makes a connection to an animal, she tries to always pair them together.
The horse grooming boxes have the horse's name on them so they are learning to spell and sound out the names. This helps some of the non-verbal kids learn to talk, Scholl said.
"My program is not inside the box. It's outside the box," said Scholl. "We cover many different things in many different ways."
Scholl explained how she works in the importance of good personal hygiene by having the students groom the horses. "You groom a horse, she said because you want the horse clean and horses like to feel good about themselves and be clean, just like people do," she said.
The program is part of the curriculum for Lakeland Star Academy, based in Minocqua, a special needs school with 36 students and Lakeland Union High School. She also works with Vilas, Onida and Iron County social services.
For more information on the program contact Scholl at 715-493-3534.
