SIRE, Houston’s Therapeutic Riding Centers

Nearly 400 people blazed into the Houstonian Hotel for this year’s SIRE Trailblazer Luncheon held last week. President of the SIRE Board of Directors Richard “Whitey” White and Executive Director Jimm Williams provided the audience with background on Houston’s Therapeutic Riding Centers and the positive impact of therapeutic riding on physical and cognitive abilities. Guests also heard testimonials from clients Steven Schultz, Derrick Perkins, Nathaniel Hunter and family members about how SIRE has enriched their lives. The luncheon was free to guests and serves as a fund raising event with no minimum donation requirement.

SIRE provides programs for individuals who have physical and cognitive disabilities, sensory impairments and psycho-social disorders. SIRE works with its clients to improve motor skills, balance and posture while stimulating the cardiovascular system and normalizing muscle tone. The client also experiences the three-dimensional movement of the horse, similar to a human’s gait, which is difficult to duplicate in a clinical setting.

SIRE, Houston’s Therapeutic Equestrian Centers, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit therapeutic horseback riding organization which uses the spirit and movement of the horse to benefit people with disabilities. SIRE has been active in the Houston area for 26 years and currently serves clients at sites in Hockley, Spring and Fort Bend County. SIRE is a premier accredited center with NARHA (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association). For more information about SIRE, call 281.356.7558 or visit www.sire-htec.org.

SIRE, Houston’s Therapeutic Equestrian Centers, has announced the addition of Wendy Cook to the Development Team.

“We are excited to have Wendy join our team at SIRE,” said Jimm Williams, Executive Director of SIRE. “Her passion for helping others along with her extensive knowledge and love of horses will certainly assist SIRE, the volunteers and the riders of our organization. She brings with her some invaluable contacts throughout the equestrian community, as well as relationships with many area corporations and individuals who share a philanthropic belief and a willingness to give back to the local community.” Cook brings a wealth of experience to SIRE after serving for seven years as the Executive Director of the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show.

“I am thrilled to join SIRE and all of the people and horses that are a part of the organization,” says Cook. “SIRE has an honorable mission and provides many new concepts projected to catapult the benefits of therapeutic riding into the spotlight. I feel that I have much to offer, a great deal to learn as well as receive. I’ve been waiting a lifetime for this opportunity, and I look forward to the challenge!”

SIRE provides programs for individuals who have physical and cognitive disabilities, sensory impairments and psycho-social disorders. SIRE works with its clients to improve motor skills, balance and posture while stimulating the cardiovascular system and normalizing muscle tone. The client also experiences the three-dimensional movement of the horse, similar to a human’s gait, which is difficult to duplicate in a clinical setting.

SIRE, Houston’s Therapeutic Equestrian Centers, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit therapeutic horseback riding organization which uses the spirit and movement of the horse to benefit people with disabilities. SIRE has been active in the Houston area for 26 years and currently serves clients at sites in Hockley, Spring and Fort Bend County. SIRE is a premier accredited center with NARHA (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association). For more information about SIRE, call 281.356.7558 or visit www.sire-htec.org.

Anthony Busacca has joined SIRE as the Site Director and Instructor at the Hockley site. Anthony has worked in the horse industry his entire professional life. His experience includes equestrian center management, as well as training and showing dressage horses. He became involved in therapeutic riding in the 1980’s as a volunteer instructor at a small, local riding program in southern California. Now, as a NARHA (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) Master Level Instructor and Lead Evaluator he has trained and certified hundreds of instructors all across the United States and in Canada, Japan and Israel. Anthony served on the NARHA Instructor Certification Committee for five years and has presented numerous lectures at regional and national conferences. He has served as the Program Director/Head Instructor of Giant Steps Therapeutic Equestrian Center, located in the north San Francisco bay area for the past two years. Before that he was Program Director of the Fran Joswick/J. F. Shea Therapeutic Riding Center in San Juan Capistrano, California for sixteen years.

From Anthony - “I am very excited about joining the SIRE team. In addition to anticipating the satisfaction derived from working with the program’s students and volunteers I am looking forward to expanding SIRE’s instructor training offerings. Inviting people from other neighborhoods to come to SIRE to receive their training and certification as Therapeutic Riding Instructors will have national and global impact as they return home to their local communities and implement what we have taught them.”

More information about all of our staff is found on our website.

It is time to start planning SIRE’s 2010 Shindig at the Houston Hilton Post Oak on May 1, 2010. We need help with invitations, decorations, entertainment, auction items, underwriters, and table sales. There will be an organizing meeting on Monday, January 11 at 7 pm. (Place to be determined based on the best location for the majority of volunteers). If you have always wanted to be in on the decision making, please contact Harla at development [at] sire-htec.org. We welcome your input on making the 2010 Shindig the best and most fun ever! Please respond by December 31, 2009.

by Peggy Wagner

Take a walk (or trot!) with me down Memory Lane….back to 1984. I saw an ad in my neighborhood paper about the need for volunteers at a therapeutic horseback riding program called SIRE, Self Improvement thru Riding Education, in the Cypress area. This was right up my alley, since horses and kids were my loves. I had a very short stint with another program a few years earlier that, unfortunately, lost its funding after only 2 sessions. But that experience planted a seed and I knew this would be something perfect for me. I went to the Volunteer Orientation where I met Cindy Lindh, SIRE’s founder, President of the Board and instructor, and about 6 or 7 other new volunteers. Little did I know at the time the hold SIRE would have on my heart for many years to come.

That first semester I volunteered at SIRE, one of my jobs was to meet Joan Woodard, the first Volunteer Coordinator, at J Bar M Ranch on Kluge Rd. where she would bring a borrowed horse trailer to pick up Sam, our roan colored Welch pony. I helped load up Sam and followed them back to Oakhollow Equestrian Park on Grant Rd. where the owners, Karen and Greg Zalar, graciously donated the use of their facilities for our SIRE classes one afternoon a week. The stalls there were full, so there was no room to board Sam or our other pony, Sambo. Sambo, a brownish-gray pony a little bigger than Sam, lived in a backyard pen at a home across the street from Oakhollow. So another one of my duties was to help stop traffic on Grant Rd. while Diane Ardissono, SIRE’s first volunteer, walked Sambo across the road to come work in the classes. The walk over was usually uneventful; however, the walk back, sometimes after dark during evening traffic, could be especially scary! Either Cindy Lindh or Physical Therapist, Diane Kornett instructed the 2 classes, with 2 or 3 clients each riding Sam, Sambo and other horses borrowed from Oakhollow. The schedule was written on a poster board tacked up by the stalls. It wasn’t long before I was given the title of “Tack Master” where my job was to make sure that all of the bridles, saddle pads, helmets…basically all of SIRE’s worldly belongings… were neatly packed away in our one large tack trunk kept in the Oakhollow tack room. It was a very exciting day when that tack trunk was replaced with an 8’ x 10’ wooden building that would eventually travel with SIRE to two other locations. SIRE remained at Oakhollow for 5 years and grew to riding 33 clients 2 afternoons per week. Two of those riders were Gabrielle Powers and Erin Brown who are both still riding today. Diana Moss and Karen Abbott began volunteering while SIRE was at Oakhollow and also remain with us today. Read more

Students looking to bring mini therapy horse to school, routinely

By TANA ROSS
from The Magnolia Potpourri - Updated: 02.10.09

It did not follow them to school but students at Nichols Sawmill Elementary want Tess, a miniature horse, to visit them on a regular basis. The little horse that can, one of a stable full of equine therapy horses at S.I.R.E. in nearby Hockley, has a hoard of fans at NSE since visiting last December as part of a Gifted and Talented Community Problem Solving Program.

“My students choose this project after visiting S.I.R.E. (Self Improvement Through Riding Education),” fifth grade gifted and talented teacher Cherrie Edwards said. “When Tess comes into a school she becomes quiet, responsive and she knows she is a teacher.”

S.I.R.E. is a therapeutic riding center that uses horses to help children with disabilities. Tess was selected by Edward’s students to interact with eight students in NSE’s Life Skills class, and the results were remarkable. Read more

Did you see this video on Channel 26 over the weekend?

We are pleased to announce that Suzanne Hinds and Fred Arnold have been appointed to SIRE’s Board of Directors. As they begin their new roles, we welcome their passion for our riders and look forward to the contribution of their many talents within our organization.

Suzanne is Director Management Assistance Program for the United Way of Greater Houston. With more than 30 years of increasing responsibility in human service leadership, she brings a wealth of experience in non-profit planning, administration and program operations. Suzanne is an avid horse owner and rider.

Fred has worked for Coca-Cola North America for the past 23 years and is currently Manager Strategic Alliances. His many years of experience in marketing and managing special projects will bring valuable skills as we continue to reach out and educate the Greater Houston Community about SIRE.

Please join me in welcoming Suzanne and Fred to the SIRE family, as we extend them our full confidence and support.

Richard “Whitey” White
Board President

Rolls-Royce encourages all its employees to participate in community activities as part of its formal Corporate Responsibility initiatives. Each RR location is expected to adopt an environmental or charitable organization to support the local community. The Houston-based Commercial Marine Group selected SIRE Therapeutic Equestrian Centers in August 2007.

From a small office of only 15 employees, seven individuals made the commitment to lead or sidewalk as volunteers for the Fall 2007 semester. Some had little or no knowledge of therapeutic riding, or horses for that matter! Everyone expected the experience to be rewarding, but we had no idea what the real impact would be for us and our organization.

For any company planning to spend thousands on “team building” activities and consultants – we have a more efficient and cost effective solution for you: get your staff involved with SIRE! From just a newly formed group of professionals in Houston, by the end of our first semester, we were a real team. Working together with the horses and clients and instructors at SIRE created a bond between us and a series of shared experiences we brought back to the office.

We have shared the joy of watching our riders get stronger, gain confidence, and it changed our perspective – we collectively know how to distinguish between the trivial and the significant - we know how to discern what is really important. As one staff member recently said, “I’m so very glad to participate, and the smiles on the kids’ faces speak volumes.” This has been a wonderful experience for all of us, and we look forward to future semesters!

Brenda S. Cunningham
Vice President - Finance