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More than just horsing around: Windrush Farms forges partnership between special needs programs
Published: April 7, 2007
Nick Reardon isn't accustomed to people trusting him.
The 16-year-old from Beverly is a student at Northshore Academy, an alternative school for students with emotional and behavioral problems. He arrived at the academy six years ago, after experiencing challenges in the traditional classroom.
When he comes to Windrush Farms in Boxford, however, Reardon is given responsibility and respect. Each week, he leads around a ring a horse being ridden by a child with severe disabilities.
During a recent lesson, Reardon was so concerned for the safety of Jackson Hebert, an 11-year-old who cannot speak or walk, that he kept turning around to look at him - and stepped right into several piles of horse manure as a result.
"When he smiles, it makes me smile, because I'm doing something good with my life," Reardon said. "I feel bad for him because he doesn't get to go around and do the stuff we do. It's sad."
The new program gives students from Northshore Academy a change of scenery from their typical environment. In the peace of the Boxford horse farm, they are free from the judgment they often experience as alternative school students.
"The beauty for me is that when these kids come here, they don't come with a diagnosis," said Sarah Seiler, program coordinator for the Northshore Education Consortium, which oversees the academy. "They're away from all that, and they can be label-free. That, to me, is magical."
Handling a 1,000-pound animal helps build the academy students' confidence, as does caring for someone with severe disabilities, Seiler said. Seeing the challenges Kevin O'Grady School students face also gives them perspective on their own problems.
"It's just really nice to be around them and feel like you have an impact on their life," said Leanne Tirabassi, 14, an academy student from Peabody. "It feels good."
Both Northshore Academy and Kevin O'Grady School are administered by the Beverly-based Northshore Education Consortium. The idea of partnering the two programs was first proposed by Susan Lutz, Windrush's program director, after Seiler contacted her last fall to inquire about riding lessons for the Kevin O'Grady School students.
"I just thought it was a really good fit," Lutz said. "I wanted to service both groups, and this was a way to do it."
The 16-year-old from Beverly is a student at Northshore Academy, an alternative school for students with emotional and behavioral problems. He arrived at the academy six years ago, after experiencing challenges in the traditional classroom.
When he comes to Windrush Farms in Boxford, however, Reardon is given responsibility and respect. Each week, he leads around a ring a horse being ridden by a child with severe disabilities.
During a recent lesson, Reardon was so concerned for the safety of Jackson Hebert, an 11-year-old who cannot speak or walk, that he kept turning around to look at him - and stepped right into several piles of horse manure as a result.
"When he smiles, it makes me smile, because I'm doing something good with my life," Reardon said. "I feel bad for him because he doesn't get to go around and do the stuff we do. It's sad."
The new program gives students from Northshore Academy a change of scenery from their typical environment. In the peace of the Boxford horse farm, they are free from the judgment they often experience as alternative school students.
"The beauty for me is that when these kids come here, they don't come with a diagnosis," said Sarah Seiler, program coordinator for the Northshore Education Consortium, which oversees the academy. "They're away from all that, and they can be label-free. That, to me, is magical."
Handling a 1,000-pound animal helps build the academy students' confidence, as does caring for someone with severe disabilities, Seiler said. Seeing the challenges Kevin O'Grady School students face also gives them perspective on their own problems.
"It's just really nice to be around them and feel like you have an impact on their life," said Leanne Tirabassi, 14, an academy student from Peabody. "It feels good."
Both Northshore Academy and Kevin O'Grady School are administered by the Beverly-based Northshore Education Consortium. The idea of partnering the two programs was first proposed by Susan Lutz, Windrush's program director, after Seiler contacted her last fall to inquire about riding lessons for the Kevin O'Grady School students.
"I just thought it was a really good fit," Lutz said. "I wanted to service both groups, and this was a way to do it."
The Consortium selected six students from the academy to participate. Every Wednesday for a month, they traveled to Windrush to receive training in how to handle a horse, everything from grooming and saddling to walking and riding.
"At first it was scary," said Jose Rivera, 17, of Salem, "but now I'm used to it."
Letters went home to parents of the Kevin O'Grady School students notifying them of the program and asking if they wanted to participate. The letters prompted a flood of phone calls from parents wanting to know more about the academy students, Seiler said.
"They wanted to know what is the academy? Who are these high school students?" Seiler said.
The academy students were apprehensive, too, about whether they would be able to communicate with the Kevin O'Grady students. To ease their fears, Seiler arranged for a meet-and-greet between the two schools at the Consortium's headquarters on Sohier Road, where Kevin O'Grady teachers taught them how to use a picture board and recognize visual cues.
On Wednesday, students from both programs converged in the farm's woodchip-laden atrium for their third lesson together. The academy students steered the horses through a variety of games designed to improve the riders' motor skills and hand-eye coordination while a parent and Windrush volunteer walked on either side of the horse to make sure the rider stayed on.
"Touch your toes!" barked instructor Tina Fransioli to the Kevin O'Grady students. With assistance from their parents and Windrush volunteers, the riders touched their hands to their helmets, followed by their shoulders and toes.
Fransioli was just as mindful of the academy students during the course of the lesson, reminding them to watch out for logs and other obstacles and make sure their riders were securely seated on their horses.
"Jose, bend that knee!" Fransioli told Rivera, who was walking alongside Kara McLaughlin, 16, a Kevin O'Grady student mounted on Judge, a chestnut brown horse. Rivera obeyed by adjusting McLaughlin's foot in the stirrup.
"The kids are always really happy when they're here," Rivera said afterward. "They're always smiling, playing games. It makes you feel good inside."
Just as the Kevin O'Grady students have made an impression on the academy students, the academy students have made an impression on their parents. They seem to get as much out of the program, said Paul Hebert, as his son, Jackson.
"I am impressed and pleasantly surprised at their enthusiasm about being here," Hebert said. "That kind of surprised me more than anything, how much they really enjoyed doing it."
