TWIN FALLS — Three-year-old Josiah Baker is a victim of shaken-baby syndrome and suffers from permanent brain damage and developmental delays. Rodney Wodskow, 61, also struggles with a brain disorder.
The two have another thing in common — a therapy horse named Chester.
Chester is one of 12 therapy horses used by Rising Stars Therapeutic Riding Center at Stargazer Ranch south of Twin Falls to change the lives of people with special needs. But more therapy horses are needed for the 90 clients the riding center serves.
Some 2,000 miles away, LexLin Gypsy Ranch breeds Gypsy Vanner horses in Rockwood, Tenn., and has donated 45 Vanners to equine therapy centers since 2009 in its annual “Gypsy Gift” contest to spread the awareness of the breed as therapy horses.
Rising Stars is well on its way to win one of 20 “gift horses” offered this year by LexLin Gypsy Ranch. As of Friday, Rising Stars was No. 16 out of nearly 80 competing facilities. The top 20 facilities will each win a Gypsy Vanner therapy horse.
“We love seeing the impact this amazing breed has in therapy programs,” said Suzy Brown, with the ranch’s Gypsy Gift Program. “They’re perfectly suited for the work with their size and temperaments.”
Vanner horses, bred by Gypsies after World War II to pull caravans, are known for their short, muscular bodies and calm disposition.
“There is something about the movement of horses that mimics human movement,” said Bob Rynbrand, a long-time volunteer with Rising Stars. Rynbrand works with riders three days each week. “Horses do the work and the riders benefit from the movement.”
Coleen Mullinix, Wodskow’s case manager, said Wodskow used to walk with a cane, but riding therapy horses has strengthened his body core and improved his balance to the point he doesn’t need the cane anymore.
It used to take four people to hold Wodskow on a horse, he said Thursday as he waited his turn to ride Chester. “Now I ride by myself.”
Meanwhile, Josiah’s adoptive mother, Tina Baker, and Rising Stars founder and Director Marni Porsath were discussing how to fit a cowboy hat over a riding helmet.
The Baker family took Josiah in at four months old. Doctors told them he would likely be a “vegetable” and would never walk, Tina Baker said.
Josiah’s basic motor skills were very limited when he started horse therapy.
“He could barely sit up on his own,” she said. “Now after a year on a horse, he can sit on the floor for an hour at a time. He has really improved and he is going to walk” — perhaps with the help of a Gypsy Vanner therapy horse.
Chris Dickard, a volunteer and board member with Rising Stars, said it’s been a dream of the facility to own a Gypsy Vanner.
“Our goal is to reach ‘beyond the reins of limitations,’” Dickard wrote in nominating Rising Stars for the contest. Rising Stars “is a place where miracles happen.”
“There is something about the movement of horses that mimics human movement. Horses do the work and the riders benefit from the movement.” Bob Rynbrand, a long-time volunteer with Rising Stars Therapeutic Riding Center