It’s a chilly Wednesday morning at Mark Reyner Stables.

Rider Wesley Boucher has just arrived, ready to get back in the arena after some heavy snow scrubbed last week’s lesson.

After clipping on his helmet, Boucher’s mother, Vickie Jagger, wheels him onto an elevated platform. With the help of instructor Jamie Harrison, the two gently lift Boucher from his wheelchair onto Walter, a towering black horse with piercing blue eyes.

Once mounted, Boucher sits confidently, smiling and making jokes with Jamie, who walks alongside them. After a couple of laps around the warm indoor arena, Harrison hands Boucher a collection of multicolored rings, which he must place on corresponding poles. Boucher likes to add a little flare to the activity, giving the hoops a good spin before letting them go.

This activity is designed to help Boucher stretch his arms, which are tensed from cerebral palsy. Boucher, 30, has bilateral hemiparesis, which causes paralysis throughout his left side.

“A lot of times, when he goes to use one muscle, all of his muscles tighten,” Harrison said. “So it’s just getting him to reach out and kind of extend and stretch his muscles.”

The mother and son have been traveling to the stables in Colorado Springs’ Palmer Park from Pueblo for 15 years. When Boucher aged out of school-provided therapy at 22, it became one of the only accessible treatments. Through riding, Boucher practices his balance, stretches his muscles, opens his hips and strengthens his core — all while having some fun. And his mom notices the impact.

“He’s had therapy for his whole life, but this is so different,” Jagger said. “I don’t think he’d be moving like he is if he didn’t do this. … They get so tight; Wes sits in a chair all day. So it really helps the entire body.”

Therapeutic horse riding has become a popular practice in the past couple of decades, offering those with special needs and disabilities a moment of independence. At the Colorado Springs Therapeutic Riding Center, instructors and physical therapists provide equine-assisted therapy to individuals of all ages with physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities.

Nancy Harrison opened the local nonprofit with her husband, Bob, in 2008. At the time, they had three riders. Now, they have more than 200.

The center offers two types of riding practices: hippotherapy and therapeutic. Both practices offer physical and mental benefits to riders. Therapeutic instructors focus on teaching the rider basic skills with the goal of independent riding, while hippotherapy is led by a physical, occupational or speech therapist who uses the horse as a tool for care. Hippotherapy also requires a referral from a medical doctor.

“It’s not a clinical area or room, so they don’t even know that they’re getting therapy,” said Nancy Harrison, who is Jamie’s mother. “They’re riding a horse, and think it’s amazing.”

Heather Crook is a physical therapist who practices hippotherapy at the stables. While Crook’s been a licensed MPT (Master of Physical Therapy) for more than two decades, she only started providing hippotherapy about five years ago, immediately drawn to the concept after learning about it.

“I went to a course to learn about hippotherapy, and I was like, ‘All right, this is my jam,’ because we own horses. We love horses, and we’ve seen the benefit it’s been to our own family, and then to be able to have the privilege of getting to incorporate that with what I do professionally was just the biggest joy,” Crook said.

Crook is a member of the American Hippotherapy Association, which educates, certifies and advocates for the practice. She uses the horses to work with her patients on balance, coordination and posture, as well as regulating the nervous system, Crook said.

The animals are also a great resource to reflect a person’s emotional state, which not only helps the therapist understand a client’s behavior, but also allows the patient to perceive their feelings.

“We’re able to use the horse to help kids with ADHD or autism or PTSD or emotional issues, because the horse is kind of a mirror, if you will, of what the client brings to the table,” Crook said. “They are such amazing creatures that, I think, really improve the value of what therapy I’m able to provide for my clients and their families.”

As for therapeutic riding, instructors like Jamie are certified through the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH) International, a nonprofit educational resource for equine-assisted therapy founded in 1969. PATH International instructors are trained to work with a wide range of physical and mental needs, including cerebral palsy, autism, brain injuries and Down syndrome. The U.S. is home to nearly 800 PATH International certified centers.

The Reyner stables are home to 22 therapy horses. Many of the horses at the center are retired from working jobs in their younger years. Before joining the program, the animals go through a 30-day trial period to train and test their personalities and abilities.

As a nonprofit, the stables work hard to provide care to all who need it, offering financial aid for lessons, which start at $50 and range depending on time and type. They host two fundraisers each year to raise money for their financial support program.

The science behind it

While the history of equine-assisted therapy is quite long — dating back to Hippocrates in ancient Greece — modern scientific research is just starting to catch up, said Caitlin Peters, occupational therapist and assistant professor at Colorado State University’s Department of Animal Sciences.

Peters, who is also the director of research at the Temple Grandin Equine Center, is leading a new study to quantify the immediate effects of human-equine interactions on autistic youth. Going into the study, which is receiving funding from the Human Animal Bond Research Institute, experts anticipate that the horses will have a calming effect on the participants, Peters said.

Why? Peters points to the parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the calming system. Peters compares working with horses — whether riding or just brushing the animal — to a meditative state. The repetitive stimulation can also help provide a sensory experience and create a social-emotional bond between caretaker and horse.

“I really think that interacting with horses, or really animals in general, likely has that calming effect on our nervous system, and that can help a lot of different populations,” Peters said. “There’s something about kind of being in the moment with the horse, almost like a meditative state.”

In addition to measuring physiological indicators like cortisol and heart rate, the study will examine the participants’ behavioral responses, recorded by parents and self-reports.

“The research behind it has only really taken hold in the last couple decades, I’d say. So our research is catching up to practice,” Peters said. “This is widely implemented, and now we’d like to put some science behind it, to demonstrate the value that it holds and also to direct practice so that these services can be most beneficial for those who participate.”

Outside the numbers

Not all the benefits of this therapy can be measured by numbers.

Nancy Harrison remembers one horse at the stables that could feel an epileptic rider’s seizures coming on before the instructor or parents could detect it. The horse would stop, she said, and within seconds, the child would have a seizure.

The stables’ owner also recalls impactful moments, from kids speaking their first words to their horse, to a woman who survived three strokes, hardly able to walk without a cane, stroll in on her own.

“A child that can’t do sports, baseball, basketball, any of that, and they’re riding a horse and riding independent, and they’re getting that horse to turn left, turn right and listen — it’s just such a big, emotional build for them,” Nancy Harrison said.

Riding a horse is also the closest movement to walking, she said, since the horse’s gait mimics that of people. Jamie often encourages Boucher to stand as he’s riding to simulate the movement — it feels like he’s walking himself, Jamie said.

But for Boucher, the best part of riding is the people he gets to work with each week, from his instructors to his fellow students.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “Jamie — I’ve been with her since the beginning. She just does incredible work.”

As Boucher rounds a corner, his smiling mother points, “Look, see, he’s carrying an egg. And the other hand that never works — it’s holding on.”