As soon as 15-year-old Franklin resident Nathan Rago walked up to Cloud Dancer and gently rubbed his face, all seemed right in the world.
Horses tend to have that effect – at least that’s been my experience for the 17 years I’ve ridden them. Almost nothing feels more healing than to run your hand along a horse’s neck, to stroke its face or to feel the gentle rocking motion atop the horse at a walk.
What’s the best is when horses lick your hands in search of treats or just salt. Cloud Dancer (C.D. for short) and I met each other this way before Nathan arrived for his half-hour therapeutic riding session at Whispering Horse Stable in Boscawen one Saturday morning.
The stable owner, Franklin resident Heather Wunschel, explained that she began her therapy program in April, four months after moving north from Florida.
Her family moved there in the first place, she said, for a school that could serve the special needs of her son, Derek.
“My son was diagnosed when he was 3 with a genetic disorder,” Wunschel said. As she and her husband, Mark, educated themselves about how to care for Derek, Wunschel said she learned about therapeutic horseback riding.
“I had horses,” she said. And when she tried lifting Derek on the back of one, Wunschel saw how her son, who usually moved almost ceaselessly, was able to slow down and learn fine motor skills.
At the time, she added, Derek was nonverbal. “I used to put him up there to get him to talk,” Wunschel said. “I saw what it did.”
Eventually Wunschel met C.D. down south, where she found him as a nervous rescue horse.
“Nobody could touch him,” she said. “There’s got to be rhythm or reason to why, but I walked up to him and touched him everywhere. I was walking back to the paddock and next thing I knew, he’s right behind me.”
Two and a half years of training later, Wunschel and C.D. were a therapeutic riding team, and a once skittish horse learned to be fine with pretty much anything.
“Including stuffed animals, pool noodles and other things,” said Tatyanna, Wunschel’s 11-year-old daughter.
Wunschel said C.D. is also trained to respond to his riders and to stop and be calm when the rider is off-balance, upset or having an emergency. With the right horse and a passion for therapy riding, Wunschel said she started looking for a barn in New Hampshire, and found one in Boscawen owned by Tim Reese.
It happens to be next door to Ann Dominguez’s riding ring, who has retired from riding and offered her large riding ring to Wunschel.
Harvesting her small patch of butternut squash, Dominguez looked out toward the ring and reminisced about the time she worked with one young equestrian to compete in the Special Olympics.
“It was amazing, what you can do with special needs children with horses,” Dominguez said. “To be able to see Heather do this for another child? It’s incredible.”
Since Wunschel began Whispering Horse Stable this spring, she’s received two clients and recruited four volunteers. One day, she hopes to have enough people and horses to have a day-camp for anyone in need of therapeutic riding – people with disabilities, special needs and veterans.
Now, though, she’s focusing on the people who have come to her so far. They include volunteers like 18-year-old Britt Preston of Concord, who rides horses and also hopes her brother, who has Down Syndrome, will eventually ride there.
Jill Ramsey, a 17-year-old Merrimack Valley High School senior, is volunteering as part of her senior project, and Dani Corning, a 49-year-old Franklin resident who has done dog therapy for 26 years, is helping, too.
And, of course, there are Wunschel’s riders, like Nathan. He came with his father, James Rago, who watched as his son mounted C.D., gathered his reigns and, with Wunschel and Corning’s help, rode the horse around the ring.
Rago told me that Nathan has been riding for several months now after Rago’s wife learned about the program.
“We’ve been trying to help him in whatever way we can,” Rago said. “People will underestimate him. Physically, I think he’s right up where his age is, (and) he’s very intelligent on computers – he’s amazing.”
Where the challenge is, Rago said, is helping his son communicate clearly with speech.
“I really believe he has it in him to do that,” Rago said. “Him having opportunities to get out and utilize what he has – that’s the biggest thing and this is helping him to do that.”
As he watched Nathan do arm circles on top of C.D., carry around a beach ball, and then plop it in a bucket, Rago said he thought that someday, his son will be able to ride a horse all on his own.
“Honestly, I never dreamed he’d be on a horse,” he added. “As a parent, I’m very thankful there’s an opportunity like this for him.”
Nathan seems thankful too. After he had finished his riding session, walked C.D. back to the barn and given the horse a few treats, I asked Nathan whether he liked horseback riding.
Without hesitation, Nathan nodded his head and told me, “Yup!”
He then waved bye to C.D. – at least until next time.
(Anyone interested in volunteering or riding at Whispering Horse Stable can contact Heather Wunschel at 941-234-8221 or at h.wunschel@se-cort.org. Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @elodie_reed.)