DANVILLE — This year marks the fifth year the Center for Children’s Services has used equine-assisted therapy as a way of treating children who may suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or types of impulsive behavior.

Bill Fraley, social worker with the Center for Children’s Services, started the equine-assisted therapy program with his own two horses.

“Using horses for therapy purposes has long been recognized as an effective way to teach children responsibility, problem solving skills and patience,” Fraley said. “Horses are highly social animals and have clear-cut personalities.”

According to Fraley, horses are honest animals and use their body language to communicate with their handlers.

“A horse uses body language for 99 percent of their communication,” Fraley said. “This is unlike dogs that use barking to communicate with humans.”

Fraley said there are innumerable ways that equine therapy helps children.

“A horse is nonjudgmental and very honest, it builds a therapeutic relationship between the child and horse, it can decrease feelings of hopelessness and teaches responsibility,” Fraley said.

Fraley said he first came to use equine therapy at the Salem Children’s Home in Flannigan where he worked right after college.

He began using the program here in Danville five years ago.

“I have been very fortunate to have a working relationship with Dr. Robert Ewbank here in Danville,” Fraley said. “I am able to board my two horses, Otas and Rachel, at Dr. Ewbank’s farm, as well as care for his horses. He, in turn, allows me to use his stable for the equine program.”

Fraley said Ewbank also allows him to use his mare, Sara, in his program.

“Our program usually lasts four weeks,” Fraley said. “We try to keep the class size to 12 kids.”

Once the program starts, the kids are bused out to the Ewbank’s farm and there the children are divided into three groups of four young people each.

“I will take one group of four kids and we will work with the horse for a while, the second group will work with a therapist doing some skill development and the third group will do a physical activity with another therapist,” Fraley said.

Each group will get their turn with the horses.

“We start out the first week teaching the kids how to halter the horse, lead the horse and groom the horse,” Fraley said. “No one is allowed to ride the horse due to liability issues.”

Fraley said the second week is about learning to maneuver the horse.

“This helps teach the kids patience and problem solving,” Fraley said. “You really see the kids start to bond with the horse. They feel really good about themselves when they can maneuver a 1,000-pound horse around.”

In the third week, the children work in pairs to maneuver the horse around an obstacle course. Fraley said this teaches them to communicate and work with others.

The fourth and final week of the program, the children play “horse soccer” as Fraley calls it.

“The object is to get the horse to walk down the field into the “goal” area without touching it,” Fraley said. “The only tools they use are their commands and gestures.”

Finally, the children are allowed to paint Otas, which is Fraley’s 18-year-old white Arabian horse, with nontoxic finger paints.

“By the end of the program the kids have a definite love for the horse and it is reflected in what they paint on the horse,” Fraley said.

Fraley said one of the most remarkable students was one with a hearing impairment.

“The student really bonded with the horse, it was like the horse understood everything the student wanted him do without any verbal communication,” Fraley said.

Fraley said the program is for kids 8 to 18 years old. Most of the participants are referred by other therapists at the Center for Children’s Services or by school district personnel.

Fraley said he is able to schedule about four different classes through the summer, which helps about 48 children each year.

FYI

Bill Fraley, social worker with the Center for Children’s Services, has been using an equine therapy program for the past five years. Fraley uses his own two horses, Otas and Rachel, as well as a mare owned by Dr. Robert Ewbank.