Community Welcomed During Summer Riding Program
This summer found us doing something new and exciting with our Equine Program. We offered a free summer horseback riding program for children ages 5 to 18 at our Foster Care Community in Harrisburg, Missouri. We’ve always offered these options to the children living on site, but this summer we opened it up to any children in foster care or who have been adopted, as well as the bio children of their parents.
Children learned proper barn etiquette, how to groom their horses, how to prepare their horse for riding, the logistics of riding with others, how to care for their horse after the ride…and so much more!
A few of this summer’s participants had this to say about the program and how it helped them and their children:
“My two girls loved the riding program!” Derek Runyan, foster dad said. “They were so excited to participate. I think the best part for them was getting to do it with their older sister and my biological daughter. It made for good quality sibling time! One of the girls took to it right away and was fearless. The other had some trepidation the first time and did not want to ride. Yet, she conquered her fear and did it the second time. She had the biggest smile while she rode!
“I really enjoyed having an extracurricular activity for them for the summer that I didn’t have to pay for. Between it and the art therapy, we had lots to keep us busy, with no added expense! I got a lot of enjoyment out of watching the girls’ improvement each time they rode.”
“My granddaughter Julie came to live with my daughter while Julie was in foster care, and then my daughter adopted her,” explains grandma Helen Jarvis, who faithfully brought Julie all summer long. “Ever since we’ve known her, she has loved horses. We have looked for affordable opportunities for her to ride and interact with horses, so when I read about Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries’s summer riding program being available for ALL foster and adopted children, we jumped at the chance to participate!
“Julie enjoyed learning how to care for a horse, and she especially loved pony bath day! One particular moment that we found humorous was when Julie fell off the horse and was actually excited about it, because she got right back on. She said when her mom fell off her horse when she was a girl, her mom only got a horseshoe, but Julie got ice cream!
“Julie thought the teachers were really, really nice,” Helen said. “They helped her learn to do some complicated things on her own, like putting on a saddle. Sometimes Julie lacks confidence, and this program really helped build her up and increased her self-worth. It also gave her the opportunity to make new friends.”
“Personally, as her grandmother, I enjoyed the one-on-one time with Julie as we drove out to Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries for each session. Sometimes it is hard to get one on one time. We live an hour away from Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries, so I was always excited to hear her talk about the fun she had. It allowed me to see a more confident Julie than what we sometimes see at home.
“Julie wanted to continue with the fall lessons and we were lucky enough to get signed up for those.” Helen concluded. “Thanks for a wonderful program. It was so fun for Julie to have something she really looked forward to every week!”
“This summer we literally flung the barn doors wide open and told the community, ‘Come on in!’” Rebecca Buchholz-Szántó, our Equine Specialist, said. “It was amazing to see so many families from the community, some new and some longtime friends, enjoy all of our horses with us.
“In the process, God opened some amazing doors for our ministry, by allowing us to welcome new summer staff who breathed new life into the program. It gave us an opportunity to share how God works in foster care to a group unfamiliar with it. They learned that no one person or family can do everything for kids from hard places, but when they do whatever they can, with God’s love, it is enough to help the least of these.”
