Columbus horseback riding program for those with special needs galloping forward during COVID-19

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Sunshine Stables in Columbus has been helping people of all ages learn independence through horsemanship since 2018.

“It helps with their balance, it helps with their coordination, it helps with their core strength,” says Matthew Molina, whose daughter Nora is one of the program’s riders.

10-year-old Nora has grown up with low muscle tone, which can throw off her balance and affect her coordination. But her father says six months of horseback riding with Sunshine Stables in Columbus has changed her life.

“It’s just a warm feeling inside that she can be an independent person also and that she will one day be an independent person,” he says.

Sunshine Stables founder and instructor Anna Brown wants to give all of her students that same independence and confidence. That’s why she created the program’s adaptive horseback riding classes for children and adults with special needs.

“I ask this 1,000 pound animal to do something and they did it and that’s cool for anyone but it’s especially cool for someone who may feel out of control several times during their life,” Brown says.

During lessons, Brown and her volunteers teach students the basics of riding. They start by showing them how to communicate and form a bond with the horse.

“To get the skills and feel, ‘Oh I’m good at this, I got this, I can do this,’ to see that kind of confidence come out, that’s really just the best thing ever,” Brown says.

After COVID-19 shut them down in the spring…Sunshine Stables is back open and with double the students.

But that has created a new set of challenges.

“Because of COVID and everybody having different schedules with work and school and hybrid stuff going on, we really need more volunteers to help,” Brown says.

Operating with masks and regularly sanitizing gear, Sunshine Stables is jumping through extra hoops to make sure students get the most out of their experience.

“Forming friendships and connecting. That’s a form of independence,” Brown says. That’s something that you have that you may not have had sitting at home.”

Click here to find out how to sign up for or volunteer with Sunshine Stables