Kelsey Merison
TUMALO, Ore. (KTVZ) — Here at KTVZ News, we focus our resources on bolstering the health and well-being of Central Oregon’s youth — through our 21 Cares for Kids partnerships.
We have six incredible community partnerships and are now kicking off a new monthly segment called ‘Making a Difference,’ highlighting each of these nonprofit organizations.
For our first feature, we took a trip out to Healing Reins — where lives are transformed through the power of horse therapy.
A horse enjoying time in a pasture at Healing Reins
Hazel Quinn is an 11-year-old who was long searching for a place to assist with her physical therapy — until she discovered Healing Reins.
“I really like how my (physical) therapist helps me with the music aspect, especially with the rhythm,” Hazel said. “It really helps me know where my surroundings are.”
Hazel with her little sister at Healing Reins
Hazel’s mom, Catie, said their lives have changed for the better, thanks to the equine-assisted services offered at the Tumalo ranch.
“Hazel’s an extremely intelligent, smart kid, but has been delayed on gross motor skills,” Catie said. “It’s been, like, a huge blessing.”
Catie, Hazel’s mom
Darrion Cotroneo is the development director at Healing Reins, and said the nonprofit assists many community members with varying needs.
“Our mission statement is to heal with horses. And we do that in a number of different ways,” said Darrion. “We provide adaptive riding lessons. We have a ‘Heroes Horsemanship’ program, which is specifically for veterans and first responders. And then we offer physical therapy, occupational therapy, and we have an on-site mental health clinic.”
Darrion Cotroneo
In turn, it receives immense support from the Central Oregon community.
“We love any chance to meet our community members. If you’re interested in just taking a tour out here, I love giving tours. If you’re just interested in what we do and meeting some of the horses, you can absolutely sign up to volunteer. Once you take a volunteer orientation class, it’s very easy to sign up, and you can kind of do that whenever you like if you only have one free hour a week. That works for us,” Darrion said.
“And of course, funding for any nonprofit right now is more important than ever. And we are a small but mighty organization and utilize every single dollar to its fullest benefit. We had a huge donation to help us build our arena here. We also almost 200 volunteers who are active. It takes us about 100 volunteers at least a week… So, we have a huge amount of support, which is wonderful.”
It’s now working on an expansion at the site to help meet a growing need.
“We are going to put a roof over our outdoor arena, which will allow us to more consistently utilize that throughout the year. We’ll be able to offer adaptive horsemanship classes in after school time slots. That will also enable us to hire another three to four physical and occupational therapists, as well as four to five mental health therapists. And this will almost double our capacity over time for seeing those clients, patients, and participants.”
A new physical therapy gym and office spaces to accommodate the growth will also be added in the expansion.
Allowing the ranch to better serve those who rely on its services — like Hazel.
Hazel working with her physical therapy team at Healing Reins
“I think we figured out, like, what I need, because I feel like before it was just kind of hard because we didn’t know what I needed or what would help me,” Hazel said.
Click here to learn more about 21 Cares for Kids.
Click here to learn more about Healing Reins.
Click here to follow the original article.
