'Therapy dogs on steroids': Hope Meadows helps at-risk youth through horse therapy

When Michelle and Anne were teens, the best friends both had mental health problems.

Michelle’s family couldn’t afford for her to get therapy. Anne’s family paid for her to go to a ranch where she had equine or horse therapy.

“It helped save my life,” Anne recalled.

The friends lost touch but reconnected as adults through their own children and decided to team up to provide the therapy that was so pivotal to Anne.

“We need to bring equine therapy to Northeast Ohio,” Michelle Togliatti recalled telling Anne Kichurchak.

In 2019, they started Hope Meadows, a horse therapy program that helps people with mental health issues.

Hope Meadows is one of 36 organizations receiving a total of $61,000 in grants this year through the Millennium Fund for Children, a partnership of the Akron Beacon Journal and the Akron Community Foundation.

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Since the Millennium Fund launched in 1999, it has distributed more than $1 million in grants to local groups that benefit children in the region.

Hope Meadows received a $2,000 grant through the Millennium Fund that will assist with its Mind Times with Horses program, a six-week series for at-risk youth. This is the program’s first Millennium fund grant.

Hope Meadows partners with local schools

Hope Meadows has partnered with several local schools and districts, including I Promise School in Akron and the Revere and Green Local school districts.

The program’s main location is at a stable in Granger Township in Medina County, though Kichurchak has a farm in Richfield that is also used.

Bonnie Simonelli, the at-risk student coordinator for Revere, said the district has been working with Hope Meadows for four years. She said they have a program in the fall and spring with eight to 10 kids in two age groups – kindergarten through second grade and third to fifth grade.

“We get kids who want to come back,” said Simonelli, who noted that some students do the program more than once.

For older students, Simonelli said they will build a waitlist until they have enough interest to put on a program.

Simonelli said the program helps with students’ anxiety and depression. She said many are in therapy but the horse component “is huge for them.”

“The horses understand when a kid is overwhelmed and will go to them,” she said.

Simonelli describes the program as “therapy dogs on steroids.” She pointed to a student who didn’t know where she fit in before going through the program. She said the program helped the girl to bond with other students.

“She was not afraid of people anymore,” Simonelli said. “She found her peace.”

When she sees this student, who is now in high school, Simonelli asks how she’s doing and she answers, “I’m fine.”

“It was effective,” Simonelli said.

Participants don't ride but work with horses in other ways

The sessions consist of a mental health specialist, an equine therapist and the horses.

The participants don’t ride the horses but work with them in other ways in an arena.

Michaela Jackson-Smith, a mental health specialist, said one activity involves asking participants to use props to show their goals for the future and the obstacles impeding them from achieving them. She said the participants then must lead a horse through this obstacle course.

“The horse might be focused on one element and we can ask them what that represents,” Jackson-Smith said. “We might ask them to move the horse through without touching them – through just communication and body language.”

Hope Meadows also serves police officers and first responders, people recovering from addiction, human-trafficking victims, and others who have survived some type of trauma or loss. The program has partnered with local specialty court programs.

“We can tailor to whatever the need is,” Kichurchak said.

Some participants are afraid of horses but not for long

Donna Zalar, an equine specialist, said participants are sometimes initially leery of the horses because they haven’t been around them before.

When that happens, Togliatti said, they will start by introducing them to one of the program’s two miniature horses and then move on to one of the nine full-size horses. She said participants might initially watch activities from behind the gate before moving into the arena.

“Behind the gate does not usually last long,” she said.

Asked what it is about horses that makes them ideal for therapy, Donna Zalar, an equine specialist, said horses are prey animals, so they are always looking for safety. She said horses are in the moment all the time because they have to be to survive.

Zalar said horses can detect a human heartbeat from four feet away and will sync their breathing with humans when they are around them. She said a woman might say, “I’m happy,” when she is actually anxious and a horse can sense that.

“They are uniquely by nature adapted and designed to reflect that – to reflect and express internal emotions,” Zalar said.

Togliatti said the program in the short term can help increase attendance, promote positive relationships, boost confidence and increase communication skills. She said they do pre- and post-tests to measure anxiety and depression, with some participants showing an improvement from moderate to mild.

In the long term, Togliatti said the program can help participants understand what a healthy relationship feels like. For some, she said, this might be the first place they’ve felt safe and they might decide, “I want that for myself.”

“That’s life-changing,” she said.

The program is now assisting about 500 people a year. Kichurchak and Togliatti have a goal of doubling that number in 2024.

Togliatti got teary as she told the story of how and why she and Kichurchak started the program.

She said they use grants like the one they received from the Millennium Fund to help provide scholarships for those who — like her during her teen years — can't afford equine therapy.

“We want to make sure we aren’t turning anyone away,” she said.

Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com, 330-996-3705 and on Twitter: @swarsmithabj.

About Hope Meadows

What it is: An equine or horse therapy program that helps with mental health and life skills.

Main location: 4820 Ridge Road in Granger Township.

How to reach: 216-232-3653 or hopemeadowsoh.org.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Hope Meadows' horse therapy helps youth overcome mental health issues