Nine-year-old Charlie Fogerty, on the autism spectrum with sensory processing issues, knows exactly how he likes to ride a horse: backward while throwing a ball. And his favorite horse, JT, happily follows his commands as they make their way around the corral. JT is one of the therapy horses at Cooper’s Calling in Tres Pinos, trained to work with special needs children to help them gain confidence and independence.
“Being up on a horse does a lot for Charlie,” said his mother, Jennifer Fogerty of Hollister. “He likes to ride backward, which helps with his balance and coordination. He also has to listen to directions from someone other than family members, which is a life skill. I was over the moon excited to find something like this for him.”
The idea behind Cooper’s Calling began with a phone call between Nichole Nijmeh and Bailey Rianda at the beginning of this year as they discussed the lack of resources available to special needs children in the area.
“This was something I had thought the community needed,” Rianda said. “And Nichole said, ‘Well then, do it!’ We checked out a place called Tera’s Chance in Fullerton that was doing something like this, and they shared their program with us and took us under their wing to show us what we needed to do.”
They made swift progress, renting the Tres Pinos Ranch Supply & Feed at 7081 Airline Highway in March. Proceeds from a fundraiser that month at Paine’s Restaurant, along with a $20,000 grant from the Joseph W. Tripiano Fund, allowed them to purchase the arena where sessions are held, and Graniterock donated materials and labor to prepare the grounds. The Community Foundation for San Benito County provided two more grants, with some of the funds used to renovate the building for better accessibility.
They named the project “Cooper’s Calling,” after a horse Rianda bought when she was 15, which, she said, taught her everything she knows about horses, comforted her, and kept her safe.
By early August, they were ready to start booking 11-week sessions.
“We are primarily servicing special needs,” Nijmeh said. “The program looks different for every rider because they each have different goals and challenges. We look for where we can grow with each child as they work on core strength, balance, and coordination. And when they are doing these things on horseback, it does not feel like work to them.”
The horses they use were chosen because they are gentle, empathetic and accepting of commands.
“Everybody has an old horse they want to give you to use,” said Rianda, “but it really takes a horse that has been trained in therapy to provide therapeutic rides. Before we get a horse, we put it through an evaluation. Luckily I have two young children who can ask for the horse’s soul and see what it will and will not do.”
JT, a donation from Jamie and John Fowles, was the first horse they acquired and is literally the workhorse of the operation, providing about 90% of the children’s rides. Scout, their second horse, has just finished desensitizing training in which the animal is placed in various situations to see how it will react.
“They are both great therapy horses,” Rianda said, “but you need them to be slow and right here. ‘Stop’ means stop, and ‘let’s go’ means let’s go. Scout, for example, would jerk a little bit when he stopped, so with him, it was teaching him respect and that any time we are working, we mean business. So there is no petting, scratching, or treats while he is with an instructor. He must know that it is work time when he is within these gates.”
Little is left to chance as far as safety is concerned. Everything is fully supervised, with one person in front of the horse monitoring its behavior, and two on either side of the horse to steady the child as they ride. The child is in charge, though, commanding the horse’s movements and deciding, with a little help, what activities they might want to do while they ride.
At the moment, Cooper’s Calling is only taking appointments two days a week, but they are working on expanding the hours and the number of horses with the help of more fundraisers and grants. Sessions are 35 minutes and cost $65, and 75% of their students are sponsored on scholarships.
The next fundraiser, a chili cookoff with contestants drawn from the community and organizations like the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department, Cal Fire and Heritage Bank, will take place during their official ribbon-cutting ceremony from 2-5 p.m. on Oct. 23.
“San Benito County is great in their support,” Nijmeh said. “It has always been a matter of people saying, ‘What can we do for you?’ We want the community to share in the journey of the children who come here and follow along with us as we improve the facility. Without the help we have gotten so far, I don’t know what we would have done, and we hope people continue to support us as volunteers or donors.”
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