VAUGHN - Brittany Andrus doesn’t play team sports, but every week she gets to compete in athletics.
Once a week, Brittany rides her therapy horse, Scout, at Horses for Healing. It’s one of the highlights of the week for the 13-yearold, who was diagnosed with autism before her third birthday.
“If you ask her who her friends are, Scout would be on the list,” says Brittany’s father, Eddie Andrus of Bentonville, the president of Horses for Healing’s board of directors. “ That’skinda cool.
“It’s something she looks forward to every week. The way we look at it is it’s like taking our boys to basketball or baseball practice; it’s time for Brittany to go ride.”
Brittany had been riding therapeutic horses for more than a year when the Andrus family moved from Minneapolis to Northwest Arkansas. Her parents were actively looking for a place where she could continue riding.
At the same time, Andrus was looking for a nonprofit organization where he could donate his time. In Horses for Healing theyfound the answer to both.
“There’s not a lot you can do for kids with autism, but as parents you never give up,” says Andrus, an executive with Sam’s Club who f irst encountered Horses for Healing when his Wal-Mart team was donating money to the nonprofit. “You want to help your kids become the best they can.
“It’s a great organization. On the day we presented them with the check, I was just walking around here and I fell in love with the place.”
Horses for Healing is anonprofit therapeutic center for children with disabilities, certified by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association. It relies on about 80 volunteers every week, and about 400 children receive services from the organization annually.
The children who ride horses there have a wide range of special needs. Many have physical ailments, and the riding motion helps them develop strength, as well as balance and flexibility.
Virtually all the children develop increased self-esteem and social skills, Andrus says. That’s because they get to participate in - and improve at - a physical activity, and they bond with their horse. The center has 21 therapy horses, all of whichunderwent extensive training and temperament testing before being accepted into the program.
“It’s a corny phrase, but when kids with special needs are on top of a horse, they feel like they’re on top of the world,” Andrus says. “ It’s because it’s their sense of being normal. Nobody’s looking down on them, and they’re not different; they’re on the back of a big, beautiful animal who takes good care of them.”
During Andrus’ time on the board, Horses for Healing has made improvements to its 75-acre facility. It has added an outdoor training arena and pulled down all of its barbed wire, replacing it with wood fencing. The reason that was done, he says, was so the organization could attract more boarders, which provide a steady source of revenue.
Horses for Healing relies on a $500,000 annual budget, which makes the success of an event like the Barn Dance critical to its ongoing mission. The Barn Dance will be at 6 p.m. June 15 at Horses for Healing’s stables, which have a Bentonville address (14673 Daniels Road) but are just west of town, in Vaughn.
Tickets to the Barn Dance are $100 apiece or $750 for a table of eight. The event features dinner, drinks, musical entertainment and auction items - among them the ability to sponsor horses, which helps provide riding opportunities for underprivilegedchildren.
The fundraising goal for the event is $150,000.
“It’s a big deal [for the organization] and it’s fun,” Andrus says. “There are not a lot of events in the area where you get to support anonprofit and wear bluejeans and cowboy boots. It’s just a big party.” For more information about Horses for Healing, call (479) 795-0570 or visit horsesforhealing nwa.org.
Northwest Profile, Pages 31 on 05/26/2013