Equine therapy program in Texas struggles to grow as developers buy up land

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• John Yang:

  More than 3 million children in the United States have some form of disability. In recent years, alternative therapies have become increasingly popular to help them with communication, socialization and just to have fun. Austin PBS brings us the story of one program that's using horse therapy to help people with disabilities, but is struggling to expand its footprint.

• Stephanie Powell, H.E.L.P. Executive Director:

  And the need for this type of program doesn't go away. But we need the space to do it.

  Most of my day is spent in the office. And I'm in the middle of reports and bills and emails and all those sorts of things. I can just get up and open my door and walk outside and pedal horse.

  All right, come on baby.

  I'm Stephanie Powell, Executive Director here at H.E.L.P.. H.E.L.P. stands for Horse Empowered Learning Program. We will partner with people with certain disabilities with therapeutic riding.

  Keep him straight, use your right leg.

  So for example, somebody with let's say cerebral palsy, that's going to work on and challenge their core, but not make them feel so unstable that they're going to fall. And it teaches all sorts of life skills. We learn boundaries. We learn how to self-advocate. We learn how to work through emotions, how to express them in safe and efficient ways.

  That was much better, much more control.

  The need is huge. I have emails and phone calls just about every day from people seeking out this program. And we want to continue. We want to grow, but we can't do it without the space.

  We are very much limited by the space that's available. But there's not a lot of options. Ideally, I believe they say about half an acre to an acre per horse. The minimum would be 10 acres just for our program. We're sharing an eight-acre facility right now. There's no opportunity for them to expand this necessarily right before we came — neighborhood built right up along the fence line. And then right behind us the school just was built.

  This is our home. This is HELP's home and we want to stay here.

  Okay, do you want to pick a game? Okay, what game do you want to play?

  I'll be in the middle of the day. And I'm working on reports on whatever — it's time for lesson. You see the smile of that rider who was able to trap for the first time on their own or just as simple as sat up for 30 seconds it changes everything.

  The challenge is being able to grow but when you see that happen, it's everything. Everything else goes away. And so I don't cry. It pushes you through.

  Good, there you go, move with your hand.

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