By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
This Halloween season, Project H.O.P.E is adding a little horsepower to the holiday fun. The local equine-assisted therapy center is inviting families to saddle up for a unique celebration: “Trick or Treat on Horseback.”
On Saturday, Oct. 18, the first day for Project H.O.P.E.’s trick-or-treating on horseback, Emily the Corpse Bride, Raphael the Mutant Ninja Turtle, Rainbow Brite and Mario (of Mario Brothers) were among the characters who showed up ready for the challenge and the fun.
Many other children and adults came sans costume, just for the unique opportunity to ride a horse and collect treats.
Aerilyn Jenkins (aka Emily the Corpse Bride) and her brother Caden (alias Raphael the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle) wanted to go trick-or-treating on horseback.
“We don’t have horses, but we just try to get interaction with horses whenever we can,” said their mother, Sara Jenkins, about bringing her children to the event. “I love horses. I think they have beautiful souls, and I want my kids to experience that.” It helped that the horse farm is not far from their rural Bowling Green home.
Mimi and Isabella Rivero Hatch were all smiles as they were helped off their horses at the end of the ride. Allen Tebbe, who owns Project HO.P.E. with his wife Sandra, showed the girls their bags of candies to take home from the experience.
In addition to riding a horse, the 10 different trick-or-treat stations included activities such as tossing stringed bolas onto a ladder frame, throwing a football through a hoop, playing a quick round of cornhole, tossing bean bags on a tic-tac-toe board, and riding the horse through a pole-bending exercise.
“We had a lot of fun,” said Mimi and Isabella’s mother Katie. “We’ve never been out here before, and their only previous experience on horses was riding the ponies at the county fair and at a jubilee event at the fairgrounds.”
Miley, Titus and Moon were three of the six horses and three miniatures on hand to canter across the sandy arena with trick-or-treaters on their backs. Not only are they the stars of the festivities, but they are also the reason for the Project H.O.P.E. event.
“We do this to show more people in the community what we do here, but it’s also a fundraiser” for the equine-assisted therapy program at 16195 W. Poe Road, Sandra Tebbe said. “The money raised helps cover the expenses of raising, feeding and caring for the special needs horses.”
With her and her husband in their mid-60s, they are involved, but they also rely heavily on volunteers to help staff the event. Some students and family members help guide the horses and the riders through the stations; others from her church or board serve as greeters or help to fit the best helmet for each rider.
Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 25-26) are the final days for Trick or Treat on Horseback at Project H.O.P.E. this year, Tebbe said. The hours are noon to 5 p.m. on both days, and the cost is $20 per rider. Parking for the event is at the Plain Congregational Church, located at the southwest corner of Poe and Liberty Hi roads. Additional volunteers are always welcome, too, she said.
Project H.O.P.E., which is an acronym for Horses Opening People’s Eyes, is a nonprofit agency that uses horses for five different therapeutic programs. “We provide over 100 hours of programming each month and serve 150 adults and children per year,” she said.
Tebbe, a mental health therapist who has used horses in treatment for 20 years, explained that the horses are all rescues or have medical issues. ”They’re very special horses, and they get worked every day.”
At the barn, the Tebbes offer Individual therapeutic riding sessions, a Sunday afternoon riding group, summer camps, and vacation Bible camp as self-pay programs.
Additionally, for individuals on Medicaid, they provide individual counseling, Pony Club, and clinical counseling services, including recovery services and mental health services to anyone recovering from addiction and community support programming, case management coordinating services at home and in the community through H2O (Helping to Overcome Systems) Behavioral Health.
“Our biggest program is the Pony Club, an afterschool program three days a week, just for kids on Medicaid,” she said. “We provide transportation for youths 7 to 17 years old to approximately 10 kids for 10 hours a week.”
Each child is assigned a horse, and they work on confidence, relationships and other issues.
“I had a private practice for a while, but I really wanted to work with the kids that couldn’t go to private practice,” she said. “I wanted a community out here, and we have one, made up of volunteers who are either involved with me or their family members are, board members or individuals who like what we do and support it.”
As a cognitive behavioral therapist, Tebbe uses the horses because they can reach and heal individuals in ways that human-to-human interaction cannot.
“They’re very black-and-white thinkers. They get scared because they think they know what the future is,” she said.
She uses the animals to help the individuals change their way of thinking.
A lot of the kids have social anxiety and trauma, so they don’t trust other people in the world, but they’ll trust these animals.”
“Horses are naturally mindful, and they don’t care if you’re in a wheelchair or you had a bad day or you were in timeout or you hate your sister. They don’t care about any of that stuff. They care about how you’re treating them at that moment,” she said. “They don’t judge. They’re very loving, and every day you are with a clean slate.”
A granddaughter of a woman who asked to remain anonymous said the work with horses has been life-changing for her 12-year-old granddaughter. She had been to various counseling services but did not have a lot of success until she met Tebbe and the horses.
“Sandy said, ‘We will find her a place,’” the grandmother said. “And the group has been wonderful for her.”
She participated in the Pony Club summer program and is now enrolled in the winter version. She is learning confidence, resiliency and how to handle other people.
She is often negative, but it makes me really happy because she is less negative, especially when she comes home from being here,” the grandmother said. “We are so thankful. Sandy keeps telling her she is going to be a leader. She’s really stepped up to help with the horses, and you can just tell that she really enjoys it.”
