Sugar

Sugar with her friend Ryan Wheat

Imagine being a child with Cerebral Palsy, or an adult with a paralyzing condition, and you have no ability to walk. Now imagine you are sitting on a horse, 1,000 pounds of kindness, and you are walking.

You feel like you are soaring — like you are so powerful and invincible that you can’t help but giggle. Or maybe you are blind, but now you have eyes. Perhaps you have Down Syndrome, and other folks are always making decisions for you.

But you ask your horse to stop, to go, to turn left or right, and by God, she does!

Meet Sugar.

Sugar is a 26-year-old jet black American Quarter Horse, and is the star of Hoofbeats of Hope therapeutic riding program, a Member Center of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) in Puryear, Tenn.

Sugar has lived with Jan Foy for 23 years, and introduced Jan to the notion of helping handicapped children and adults in the area. Jan's daughter, Staci Foy, rode Sugar in 4-H.

"A physical therapist contacted me in 1992 to see if I had a horse for a 4-year-old boy with Cerebral Palsy to ride, and I knew it was Sugar," Jan recalls.

That little boy was Ryan Wheat, and at his first ride he couldn’t sit up by himself. "He would bend forward at the waist until his head rested on Sugar’s neck," Jan says. "By the end of that summer, he could sit straight up and even hold his head up proudly, helmet and all."

Ryan came back 10 years later, when he was 14, and rode Sugar again. It was quite a reunion.

As many as three volunteers on the ground accompany each rider, as needed. One at the horse's head and one steadying each leg of the rider. Jan says that about 30 clients per week come to ride, referred by word of mouth and through local physicians and physical therapists. Plus, Hoofbeats is a premier accredited center through North American Riding for the Handicapped, so they get referrals from that Web site too.

Jan and Staci are assisted by the 20 to 25 volunteer helpers who give their time. "It is so rewarding," Jan notes. "The riders steal your heart."

Sugar has an uncanny talent at knowing just what her riders need. If a more capable rider is up to a greater challenge, she will oblige. And if a rider is being intentionally rough, grabbing at the reins with too much force, Sugar will pull right back, and tell them, "Unh-uh, this is the way it's done!"

And if a client is able to ride unassisted, Jan is confident. "We can trust Sugar. She just knows."

Jeffrey, Shannon Bomar (one of the volunteer instructors) and Sugar

Sugar thrives on her role as the Queen of the Hoofbeats of Hope. She was retired when she was 20. She went downhill fast, losing her zest for life. When she started back in the program, she just bloomed.

"Instead of looking her 26 years, now she looks like a 15-year-old," Jan says. "She recognizes 'her' kids. She sees one of her riders, and puts her head down to greet them."

As Sugar lowers her head into the chest of one of "her kids," Jeffrey, he says to her: "I miss you when I'm not here, Sugar, but that's OK. I always carry you in my heart."

Rock on, Sugar.

Hoofbeats for Hope is a 501C3 charity. For more information on how you can help, or for a newsletter, contact Jan Foy.

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