By Renee Worthing 

Register Reporter 

   A plume of dust rises up from the outdoor riding arena at Equest Therapeutic Riding Center. 

   People surround a little boy astride a horse and cheer after he trots the horse the entire length of the arena.

  “Good job,” they say to Hunter Frechette.

  The 4-year-old boy grins.

  Hunter Frechette, who has Down syndrome, is one of 90 physically and mentally handicapped riders who visit Equest each week not only learn to ride horses, but gain coordination, balance, muscle tone and a special bond with horses.

  The team of instructors, handlers and an occupational therapist lift Hunter from the back of the horse.

  “He has improved dramatically,” his mother Diane Frechette says, holding Hunter’s hand outside the arena.

  She says his vocabulary increased from 50 words to about 265 words since  he began riding last year.

  “He loves riding,” she says. “He knows, on Friday, he gets to ride Misty. It has been so beneficial. It has increased his core strength, his walking and balance.”

  Hunter breaks free of his mother’s grasp and runs toward another corral.

  “It has increased his speed, too,” Diane Frechette laughs as she turns to run after her son.

  Equest, owned and operated by Sarah and Nick Armentrout, is situated on 150 acres of gentle rolling hills in Lyman. Majestic oak trees dot the landscape, their still-bare branches reach out, seeming to welcome visitors to Equest and Spring Creek Farm, the Armentrout’s horse boarding business.

  The atmosphere of the farm is peaceful, devoid of the sounds of speeding cars or machinery. The sound of horse hooves on the hard packed earth adds to the tranquility. The natural sound belongs in the environment. Birds twitter in the eaves of the barns where the tack hangs neatly.

  Equest owner and Executive Director Sarah Armentrout offers a tour of the facility, which opened 10 years ago.

  She says she grew up riding in Kennebunk, but never anticipated working with horses as a career until she discovered she could combine her love of horses with her desire to help people. After she and her husband spent four years instructing students and managing Sagebrush Equine Training Center for the Handicapped in Sun Valley, Idaho, the couple, spurred on by their experience, returned to Maine and opened Equest.

  They purchased Spring Creek Farm and began operating Equest, but quickly outgrew the barn and other facilities. They purchased the defunct dairy farm across the dirt driveway and began to renovate its buildings.

  A converted cow tie-up area serves as a covered riding arena during inclement weather, although Sarah Armentrout says it is much smaller than a typical arena.

  It also features a wheelchair ramp and a mechanical lift to transfer riders from a wheelchair to the back of the horse. The lift helps position riders “perfectly” on the horse, Sarah Armentrout says.

  A larger indoor arena is now being constructed to accommodate the people who board horses at Spring Creek Farm.

  A hippotherapy – derived from the “hippos,” the Greek, word for “horse”– room was built to help riders prepare for a half-hour riding session. The room features large rubber balls for straddling and a vestibular swing to prepare their equilibrium and muscles for the motion of riding a horse.

  While straddling a ball, the riders practice maintaining balance while tossing a smaller ball back and forth with an occupational therapist.

  For people with physical handicaps, horseback riding helps improve posture, balance, muscle tone and strength, flexibility and coordination, Sarah Armentrout says.

  “It’s constant balance and range of motion,” she says.

  She says many muscles must coordinate to keep a rider upright as they experience the moving motions of the horse.

  Program Director and Occupational Therapist Sue Grant organizes and plans the riding activities and equipment that will benefit the riders, whether their challenge is physical or mental.

  Grant says 33 children in school programs participate in hippotherapy at Equest where she strives to help the students reach academic goals by focusing on concentration, communication, sensory perception, fine motor skills and other skills.

  “After a lot of matching and planning, then we do the dance,” Grant says.

  Therapeutic riding also helps with behavioral issues, including autism.

  Sheri Sastre and Jennifer Poore sit in rocking chairs outside the corral as their children ride and play games atop their horses.

  Abby Sastre and Marston Poore, both 4 and diagnosed with autism, ride their horses sitting backward. 

  A “sidewalker” and two horse handlers walk beside each horse. They sing “Old McDonald,” as the children toss balls back and forth to Occupational Therapist Sarah Ozyck and follow directions such as, “make your horse trot.”

  Sheri Sastre says Abby “jumped on and never looked back.”

  Since Abby began riding last year, her communication skills have improved and the sensory input keeps her calm, Sheri Sastre says.

  Jennifer Poore says Marston’s balance, core strength and communication skills improved as well since he began riding at Equest last year.

  She says she was also impressed with the relationship Marston has with the horse.

  Equest uses six horses for therapy and each has been trained specifically for that purpose.

  “They need to learn to allow a handicapped rider on them,” she says. “They have to put up with balls bouncing off their heads and learn not to move one step when a rider is being placed on their back.”

  Other horses at Equest are used for a new carriage driving therapy program. 

  Sarah Armentrout says some riders’ balance is too compromised to sit atop a horse or they may weigh too much.

  “Some people are just more interested in driving than being astride,” she says.

  In previous years, when winter set in, riders kept in shape by participating in a fitness program at Equest, but this past winter, teens and adults who regularly ride at Equest joined in a program at the Biddeford YMCA.

  “The YMCA was so welcoming and inclusive,” Sarah Armentrout says.

  She says it was good for the individual riders to be treated as a “whole person” and was an opportunity for riders to consider offerings at the YMCA such as swimming.

  “It [the YMCA winter program] exceeded our expectations,” she says.

  She says many of the riders enrolled in the winter program lost weight and maintained the physical improvements gained during the riding season.

  Equest, a non-profit organization, must raise 70 percent of its $400,000 budget through grants and special events such as the Cowboy Ball and the Family Fun Festival in October, Sarah Armentrout says.

  The festival features pony rides, pin the tail on the donkey, mechanical bull riding, a dunk tank and other entertainment.

  Equest’s miniature horse a therapy ambassador, Beauty, visits nursing homes, schools and other venues such as the May 17 Goodall Hospital’s Women’s Expo.

  Walking back to the barn, Sarah Armentrout stops and looks around Equest and Spring Creek Farm. Her smile widens.

  “This is a culmination of 10 years worth of work,” she says. “It’s our slice of heaven and we love what we do.” For more information about Equest, visit www.equestmaine.org.