Kyle, Kyle, Ride and Smile

Kyle and Kaylie hand-in-hand at Hilltop Equestrian Center 

Life is different with Kyle. 

It’s a kind of different that many other families understand, though. And those are the families Jacob’s Fund serves. 

Kyle is one of “our kids;” he receives hippotherapy at Hilltop Equestrian Center in West Alexandria, Ohio. Kyle is 8-1/2, but his severe autism means he and his entire family are “stuck in toddlerhood.” He’s still nonverbal and, though a tall boy from two tall parents, he still needs his diapers changed. Unable to communicate, he often becomes frustrated.

Stressful? Yes. Challenging? Certainly. And to be honest, sometimes sad. But Kyle isn’t a burden, as his mom, Kelli explains. Her blog about life with Kyle is titled “Not Just Anyone” because Kyle is not just anyone, but an exceptional blessing.

Little sister, Kaylie, pushing Kyle in his stroller

Your support

So what has your support for this exceptional blessing meant over the last year and a half, and what does it mean as he continues hippotherapy at Hilltop Equestrian Center?

Well, we’re rooting for Kyle to become verbal, both for the delight of hearing him communicate and because it will greatly lower his frustration level. And since he’s been receiving hippotherapy, he’s begun to enjoy vocalization and he has started to refer to people and objects using the same vocalization each time. He’s also recently learned to wave “Bye.”

Hippotherapy reinforces Kyle’s learning at his new school for children with autism. Amy, his therapist, is excited about Kyle’s progress. “He’s made so much progress! Especially with sequencing and attention to task. Now we’re working on letter identification.”

Kyle and Dad

Kyle is delighted by his favorite videos, riding under bridges and through tunnels, eating pizza, laughing and screaming as his family makes calls on him with the referee penalty flag he got for Christmas. He enjoys his special needs Sunday School class (and the elevator ride he takes to get there). And he delights in giving hugs and affection, sitting on Mom and Dad’s laps. When Daddy tickles him and “wrestles” with him, his laughter delights his family as well.

And he’s a speed demon, always wanting his horse to go faster. Amy, his therapist, has had to change his horse because he needed more horsepower. 

Kyle’s progress is exciting. His continued hippotherapy is an essential part of his ability to make gains with verbal, mental, and musculoskeletal skills.

Your support helps Kyle move forward, be it with the great speed that Kyle loves to ride or in smaller increments. You play an important role as you continue to support Kyle and all our Jacob’s Fund kids.

We’d love to hear your ideas on how we can work together to reach more people like you, who support children with disabilities through hippotherapy and therapeutic riding. Just click on Post a Comment and give us your ideas.

JACOB'S FUND :: McKenna Farms Mission Experience, Late Spring 2014 part 2 - Many hands make light work

A football team, a bathroom and a shed – the makings of a busy mission experience!


Our job this weekend is to clear out brush that has grown along the fence between the corral and the trail, plant shrubs and flowers, replace two of the stations, paint and make repairs, and weed and mulch.

Football players removing a huge tree


It’s a tall order, but we’re about to get some major reinforcement. Nearby Harrison High School has just delivered a busload of students who are pouring onto the parking lot, eager to start work. They are divided into work teams and quickly dispatched to locations around the barn, farmhouse, and the riding arenas.


Soon more than a dozen young men from the football team join us and begin removing small trees and brush from along the fence line and some larger trees that have fallen along the trail to the creek. The speed and efficiency with which they do this is astounding.

Members of Christ United Methodist working on the Sensory Trail

Now the Jacob Beachy Sensory Trail is thrumming with activity. As the young men of Harrison High haul brush and trees away, two members of our team remove old whiteboard and chalkboard, making way for the new, weather-resistant Plexiglas boards. Two more are busily wielding cans of spray paint, applying a fresh coat of primary colors to the shape sorter and hanging tubes and even a bit to themselves. And still a surprising number of us are hunched over, attacking weeds with unusual vigor. Even Jacob’s baby sister and brother get into the act, helping position the posthole digger and planting flowers.

Jacob's sister Elyse (left) & friend repainting the shape sorter


The sun climbs higher and it’s hot! We’ve been working for more than three hours. It’s time for the high school students to depart, and they quickly assemble and board the bus, then disappear around the bend in the road.


The trail is quieter now, with only the occasional metallic thud of the posthole digger, the regular buzz of carpenter bees and the thwacking and sucking sound of Jacob’s younger siblings’ shoes in the mud hole they’ve discovered. 
An old saying pops into our heads: many hands make light work. With the help of the high school students, we’ve accomplished much of our work on the trail.

Jacob's brother Max helping out


After lunch, we’re ready for more chores. Sonya, The Red Thread Promise’s Vice-President, tackles painting one of the bathrooms. She’ll have to do this alone, since there’s no space for another person inside the bathroom once she gets the ladder up.


The rest of us head to the tool shed. This is more than a clearing out and reorganizing mission. You may recall that Jessie Moore, Director of McKenna Farms, lost Will, her husband and father of her two young sons, to a massive heart attack in December 2012.


Will and McKenna Farms were inextricably entwined. So much of the daily life of the farm depended on Will, and Will’s toolshed has remained pretty much untouched since his death.


We gently consult Jessie as to what should be done with each item. Sarah, Jacob’s mom, is known for her organizing skills, so once the piles are sorted, she directs us in reorganizing the shed.

Before and after - beautiful!


We head back to the farmhouse for a cool drink of water, and to admire Sonya’s handiwork. The bland off-white has been replaced with a first coat in an inviting shade of green.


Sweat trickles down our backs and faces. We are dirty and red-faced and we smile, thinking of the children who will be back to ride the trail Monday morning, breathing in the scent of sage and rosemary, tossing frogs into squares and circles and stars, playing the chimes, and talking about the pink and purple and yellow blossoms.


They’ll notice the freshly painted bathroom – kids love color. And although they won’t peer into the toolshed, the new farm manager will, and his job will be a little easier. In our mind’s eye we see the faces of those children, and our thoughts return to the conversations we’ve had with them and their families.


Exciting things are happening, and we’ll share those with you soon.

Looking for fresh faces for an upcoming trip!


Do thoughts of the children you’re helping support bring a smile to your face? We hope so. You’re an important part of what we do, and thoughts of you, too, makes us smile.


Would you like to join us on our next trip to McKenna Farms in Dallas, GA, or visit our other partnering therapy center, Hilltop Equestrian Center in West Alexandria, Ohio? If so, please let us know. Email Glenna or call 513-423-0108.

JACOB'S FUND :: Hilltop workday re-scheduled

Jacob's Fund Director, Glenna, and Amayzzing at Hilltop Equestrian Center

With a number of commitments pressing on Hilltop, plus the prediction for rain on Saturday, Hilltop has decided to postpone their work day for May 10th. We will let you know as soon as we have the new date! Thank you to all who have shown interest in joining us. We look forward to working with you at a later date!

Jacob’s Fund :: Work Day at Hilltop Equestrian Center

Jacob's Fund Director, Glenna (center), surrounded by Hilltop staff

Spring on a horse farm in Ohio is the gurgle of a stream winding through a meadow, all-legs foals kicking in a breeze that carries birdsong from a nearby stand of forest, and grass so impossibly green you kneel to touch it to make sure it’s real.

If you’d like to experience a morning like this, come join us on Saturday, May 10, from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at Hilltop Equestrian Center, 4051 U.S. Rt. 35, West Alexandria, Ohio. That’s the day that Jim Hazelwood, Amy Day, and the staff and therapists at Hilltop have set aside to spruce up the farm after the long, cold Ohio winter.  

We’ll receive our assignments and get to work on a beautiful horse farm and barn where kids with disabilities enjoy hippotherapy and therapeutic riding in a warm, loving atmosphere. Following our morning labors, we will gather with the Hilltop “family” for food and fellowship at 1:00 p.m.

If you’ve longed to be part of one of our mission trips but have not been able to commit the time for a trip out of the country or for a long weekend, this is quite possibly the ideal experience for you to “get your feet wet” in a mission experience.  

Please join us in this hands-on experience that helps ensure that the children we sponsor have the best possible experience as they gain the strength and skills to live their lives as fully as possible.

No need to RSVP. 

Just show up on the morning of the 10th and be ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work. 

Inside the Hilltop stable

JACOB'S FUND :: Rotary hears our story

Glenna Fisher, Director of Jacob's Fund

We love telling our story. So when Rotary of Middletown, Ohio, invited Glenna Fisher, Director of Jacob’s Fund, to speak during this week's meeting, she was delighted. “Knowing Rotary’s dedication to service and international understanding, I knew that they would not only listen to our story, but would hear it with both hearts and minds,” Glenna said.

“The Red Thread Promise’s story—from Zhou-Zhou in China, the first child whose surgery we sponsored, to Kyle, whose hippotherapy we support at Hilltop, just minutes away from where we were meeting—is a story of loving children and helping them live their lives to their fullest potential.”

The Red Thread Promise hopes to partner with Middletown Rotary to help children in the Cincinnati area through Jacob's Fund. As one of the Rotarians said following Glenna’s presentation, “There are so many children in our area who would benefit from hippotherapy.”

We whole-heartedly agree. Together with our supporters from Rotary and across Ohio, we hope to make a lasting difference in their young lives.

TEN YEARS AND COUNTING!

On behalf of The Red Thread Promise, we want to thank you for your continued support of our organization. Without people like you, we wouldn't be where we are today, beginning our 10th anniversary celebration! 

We have served countless children in China, Haiti, Uganda and the USA over the past decade. We look forward to continuing our mission—providing hope and healing to needy and orphaned children—with you at our side! 

As 2014 approaches, we wanted to share some exciting opportunities to serve and be in mission with us.

DOMESTIC TRAVEL
In the US, we will continue offering bi-annual trips in the spring and fall to McKenna Farms, our partner providing hippotherapy and therapeutic riding in the south (Dallas, GA). We are excited to announce that we will begin hosting mission trips to our new partner farm in the north, HillTop Equestrian Center (West Alexandria, OH) as well! During these missions, each team performs a variety of stable, grounds and facility work, learns about the therapy offered and the impact it has on young lives, and—most importantly—meets some of the kids we sponsor in our own backyards.

McKenna Farms, Georgia

HillTop Equestrian Center, Ohio

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
With more than 15 trips to St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children over the past three years, The Red Thread will continue offering medical and non-medical mission trips to St. Vincent’s in Port-au-Prince and other areas in Haiti. We have an exciting opportunity to visit a Haitian hippotherapy farm during our upcoming trip (Nov. 2013) and are hopeful to begin a relationship there. This would allow us to offer both hippotherapy and therapeutic riding to kids at St. Vincent's. As we focus on these major medical issues, we will no longer offer Camp Jake. The Red Thread celebrates the three successful sessions we completed over the past two years and we look forward to offering new opportunities that will enrich the children’s lives and improve their health.

St. Vincent's Center for Handicapped Children, Haiti

LOOKING FORWARD
As The Red Thread team reflects on our years of service and looks to the future, we feel our organization is poised to delve deeper into life-changing medical care for disadvantaged children. We will continue to provide services that the child would not receive without intervention, including surgeries, long-term medical treatment, therapy and nutrition. By improving the state of these kids’ health, together, we make a lasting irreversible positive impact on a child’s life, increase their self-confidence, and open doors to a better future. 
  
Who knows where 2014 will lead? It may be the perfect time for our first trips to China and Uganda. Wouldn’t that be a grand way to celebrate our anniversary?!

We look forward to sharing details of upcoming travel and gifting opportunities as we work together to care for needy and orphaned children, TEN YEARS and counting!

JACOB'S FUND :: Round 2 for Kyle

Amy, Kyle's therapist, helping him get ready to ride.

Sometimes we are lucky enough to see the world tilt a little toward the good. This past Thursday night was one of those times. 

There was Kyle, riding his horse, Dallas, during a hippotherapy session at Hilltop Equestrian Center in western Ohio. Alongside him were his therapist and horse handler. Concentrating intensely, Kyle had just completed a matching and sequencing exercise with colored rings and flags.  

During the sequencing exercise atop his horse, Dallas

He urged the horse forward, using the muscles he is developing through therapy, and Dallas began to trot gently. Suddenly all eyes and ears were on Kyle whose laughter filled the entire indoor arena with the sound.  

“This is music to my ears,” said Kelli, Kyle’s mom. We couldn’t agree more!

Kyle completed his first six-week session of hippotherapy over this past summer thanks to your financial support. Amy, his therapist, reports that his core strength increased, his balance improved, and toward the end of the six weeks, she saw (and heard) him vocalizing much more. At this first night of his second session, he picked right up where he left off, building on the strength and skill he’d gained during the last session.

Therapy includes many trips around the arena

The Red Thread team loves hippotherapy because we see measurable results. But what we love more than anything is the changes that we see happening to families when:

• Their child is at last able to communicate their needs or express the pleasure he or she feels when playing with their brothers and sisters.  
• A little one—who could not stand independently—walks into the living room unaided. 
• Their child—who could not talk—whispers “Good night, Mommy” for the first time.  
• A child gets out of the car at the carpool drop off, is greeted by another child and they walk away hand-in-hand.

These are the small miracles that we witness, made possible by your gifts to Jacob’s Fund.

We’re thrilled, as we know you are, that Kyle is growing in strength and capability. We eagerly look forward to seeing him reach new goals and sharing those accomplishments with you.

But we’re ecstatic that, on Thursday evening as the sun began to set over the rolling hills and farmland surrounding Hilltop, Kyle, not waiting for his parents to hold his hand, hurried into the barn to find his horse and begin riding.

Kelli holding Kyle up to peek in at a horse

JACOB'S FUND: Meeting Kyle, part 2 - New beginnings

Kyle and mom, Kelli

Glenna, Jacob’s Fund Director, and Sonya, TRTP VP, drove to a quiet Cincinnati suburb a few weeks ago to meet Kyle, the newest recipient of a Jacob’s Fund ridership (aka a hippotherapy scholarship). Kyle has been diagnosed with three challenging conditions: Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), epilepsy and hypotonia. His life—and that of his family—is a daily challenge.

We were deeply impressed as Kelli (Kyle's mother) shared her tireless work seeking out specialists, treatments and any form of help that she and her husband can provide for Kyle. Here is a tiny sample of the family's efforts for their first-born:

• Securing a grant from the Cincinnati Inquirer for a heavy-duty changing table and special stroller to accommodate Kyle's 7-year-old body
• Putting him on a Ketogenic diet that includes drinking special formula, stimulating his body to produce ketones which help to suppress his epilepsy, thus decreasing the volume of seizure medications necessary
• Seeking out a grant for a supply of Kyle's special diapers; due to his age and build, he falls into the wide gap between readily available toddler- and adult-size diapers

The biggest hurdle
One of the family's biggest challenges is communication with their 7-year-old son. Kyle—who is currently non-verbal—is being evaluated to identify a form of communication that will be successful for both him and his parents. The family has explored ASL (American Sign Language), which requires fine motor skills that he hasn't yet mastered, and PECS (picture exchange communication) with little success. Not being able to understand one another is a source of frustration not only for Kyle, but anyone involved in his care.

This is one of the main reasons The Red Thread Promise has offered Kyle a hippotherapy ridership. We have observed such profound progress with non-verbal children receiving therapy on the back of a horse! Hippotherapy has been documented time and time again to be an aid to opening lines of communication previously undiscovered. We are all extremely hopeful that this doctor-prescribed therapy will help Kyle develop his own form of communication, opening many doors into this special child's world.

New beginnings

This July, Kyle will begin hippotherapy at nearby Hilltop Equestrian Center. He and his family have already completed the pre-screening process and are anxious to begin his treatment in Hilltop's summer session. During their tour of the facility, Kyle impressed everyone with his acceptance of the horses, showing little fear or apprehension. We hope that these characteristics will provide Kyle's smooth transition from the ground to horseback where therapy begins.

After Kyle has been in therapy for a few consecutive weeks, the Jacob's Fund team will visit Hilltop to observe Kyle's riding, speak with his therapists and provide an update. Thank you so much for helping us put this boy in the saddle! 

JACOB'S FUND: Expansion dreams come true!

Glenna greeting Amazzing, one of the therapy horses

That’s right.You read the title correctly. 
The Red Thread Promise is standing on the threshold of a brand-new relationship with a PATH certified hippotherapy center in southwestern Ohio! While we will continue working with the kids and staff of McKenna Farms, our long-term partners in Georgia, The Red Thread team has longed to provide hippotherapy and therapeutic riding to children in other areas. Now, we are making that dream a reality.

Recently, Glenna (Jacob’s Fund Director) and Sonya (TRTP VP) traveled to Hilltop Equestrian Center in beautiful rural Ohio. Less than an hour’s drive from many of the more populated cities and towns in the area, Hilltop is staffed with AHA certified therapists who are ready to work with our children. During our conversation, we quickly established that both organizations share many common goals and basic principles, agreeing that:

• Hippotherapy and therapeutic riding opens the door to new worlds for youngsters with disabilities; and
• A family’s economic circumstance should not prevent a child from receiving therapy. 

It was the start of something beautiful.

One wing of Hilltop's stables

Glenna, Jacob's Fund Director, and the Hilltop staff

Jim Hazelwood, Program and Events Director at Hilltop, and Amy Day, Master of Physical Therapy, guided the tour through the facility as we discussed practical matters such as: 

• how often hippotherapy is offered
• how many children receive therapy
• how many therapy horses are in use
• how long sessions are and associated costs
• their therapist qualifications; and  
• the certifications of the facility.

One of Hilltops littlest riders during hippotherapy

The indoor arena

As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, providing services like this goes far beyond the technical aspects. We were eager to hear what Hilltop does for families as a whole. With a goal of enriching all family members’ lives, a pre-screening consultation is required for entry into any Hilltop program so that staff can get to know not only the child receiving therapy, but the family also. Hilltop also provides numerous programs for other family members including adults, teens and typically developing siblings in addition to therapy services. 

When we left, Hilltop welcomed The Red Thread Promise to visit, observe, take photos and interview staff, children, and families anytime.  

Learning horsemanship

This was music to our ears as we do our best to share the progress of the children we support with you. In an upcoming post, you’ll meet Kyle, the first child Jacob's Fund will be sponsoring at Hilltop. Stay tuned and be prepared to fall in love with this precious little boy!