Stations introduce riders to sights, sounds and smells
By Heidi Fenton
The Grand Rapids Press
ROCKFORD, Mich. (AP) — Imagine standing in the bright Arizona sun with no sunglasses, dressed in a hot, scratchy sweater, with all the sights and loud sounds of city life ringing in your ears.
The situation alone would be enough to make many miserable. We’d struggle to focus beyond our circumstances.
This is how Kathy Ryan explains daily life for many children with autism. Ryan, who raised a son with autism, understands the challenges involved with processing sight, sound, smell and touch. Even a simple trip to the grocery store, with so many other things going on there, was difficult.
“It was all too much for him,” said Ryan, executive director of the Equest Center for Therapeutic Riding in Rockford.
Ryan first brought her son to the Equest Center as a child and saw his immediate transformation amid a group of people who understood.
“It was the first place that I felt like they saw my son as a boy who happened to have autism instead of an autistic child,” she told The Grand Rapids Press.
That memory remains in the forefront of Ryan’s mind as the Equest Center recently unveiled a new one-mile sensory riding trail. The trail, named the “Saddle Safari Discovery Trail,” is considered among the top in the nation, Ryan said, and is already attracting national attention.
Children and adults with all kinds of disabilities will be able to mount horses and ride down a quiet woodland trail that gently guides them through a journey of their senses. Different stations along the way introduce them to sights, sounds and smells.
Through interacting with activities at the stations and the feel of the horse moving beneath, riders will work on reflex and adjusting to motion, Ryan says. They will experience touch and sound naturally through the wind on their faces and the horses’ hooves striking the earth below.
“All these things are going to be able to help them learn how to respond, to take in all these senses and respond appropriately to them,” Ryan said.
She couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities ahead.
A sensory riding trail is something that has been on Ryan’s mind for years. But always, the cost stood in the way. Available land around the Equest Center’s indoor and outdoor riding arenas was covered with trees and brush.
The process of making a pathway through it seemed daunting.
“We figured we’d do what we could with the money we had,” she said.
Then, in fall 2012, leaders from Baudville Inc., a Grand Rapids-based employee recognition and software company, approached Ryan with a desire to serve.
The company has long looked for ways to serve others while at the same time building camaraderie among its own employees. In the past, staff members have teamed up to build a Habitat for Humanity home.
To celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary, leaders wanted to take on a big project, something special that could really make a difference. Leaders sought out area charities for places the company could serve. They have previously worked with the Equest Center and learned of Ryan’s vision for a sensory riding trail.
Employees took the idea and ran, Ryan said.
Company designers, with input from specialists at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and more, drafted ideas for sensory stations that would best serve those aiming to grow beyond physical and mental disabilities.
Not only did staffers think of ideas, the Baudville company funded the entire project.
Staffers put in more than a thousand volunteer hours excavating the land, installing signage and putting together a trail with more than 10 different sensory stations. They hope to add more in the future.
“Never, ever, ever, ever had someone come in with all the resources, ideas, names for stations and funding,” said Ryan, still in disbelief over what had been accomplished so quickly.
A grand opening celebration and ceremonial ribbon cutting took place on Oct. 16 to officially dedicate the new Saddle Safari Discovery Trail. The horses have already been out strolling through the woods, adjusting to the sounds and feel of carrying a rider outside of the typical arena atmosphere. Staff at the equine center plan to open the trail to clients soon, offering rides through the fall as long as the weather will cooperate.
Baudville President and CEO Brad Darooge couldn’t help but smile on a recent day as he rode through the wooded course on a golf cart, pointing out the features of each station.
Darooge demonstrated how riders will be able to pull up at station one — “Marimba Beats” — and use a mallet-like device to tap the top of a series of hand-constructed tubes. The resulting sounds are music unique to each child’s own beat.
A wooden bridge called the “Click Clack Crossing” was designed using special wood that will echo the sounds of horses hooves traveling across it. At Discovery Quest, riders will open doors to a series of bird houses, which each hold containers with scented items inside.
“Smell that?” Darooge asked on a recent day, handing over a container with several candy canes inside. The scent of peppermint wafted out.
Staff at the equestrian center will be able to change the items inside to create new smells and experiences.
At a “Stop Steer Park” station, riders will travel through a separate path dotted with traffic signs and a changeable traffic light. They will learn to respond appropriately to the signs they came across.
Memories flood Darooge’s mind as he moved down the trail. Each station was individually designed and created by his employees, who spent countless hours at the equestrian center from spring 2013 into October.
Darooge’s father volunteered multiple days each week, using his tractor to help with excavating work and selecting just the right wood for the “Click Clack Crossing” bridge in order to amplify the sound of horses’ hooves. Having him as part of the project made it even more special, Darooge said.
Many Baudville employees have desk jobs in front of computers. Darooge estimates nearly 80 percent of the staff made it out — many, several times, making the drive to Rockford from the Baudville offices near the Gerald R. Ford International Airport — and pushed themselves out of their comfort zones. Employees ran chain saws, rode tractors.
“Things you think, ‘Aww, that’s not me,’” Darooge said. “We’re getting our hands dirty.”
He recalled the quiet of the woods at 7 a.m., putting in time before heading into the office. The experience of the staff working together to complete the project was just as valuable as the outcome for the equestrian center, Darooge said.
“Our folks appreciate the place they work more because we do stuff like this,” he said. “It’s a huge win for the company.”
And there were a lot of laughs, too.
Dan Rogers, of Lowell, works as a general manager for Baudville’s sister company, IDville, a creator of security and ID card systems.
Rogers recalled a day when Darooge’s father wasn’t around to help run the tractor. It was 90 degrees out, he was the only company executive around and was designated to give it a try.
“I’m driving the tractor, trying to do my best. I’m trying to dump the load, dumping it all over the place,” Rogers said, laughing at the memory.
Rogers has an estimated 25 people on his team at work. Through the summer, he met and interacted with so many other people.
“You really don’t get to know them like you do with a rake in your hands when it’s 94 degrees,” he said. “The conversation has to go somewhere.”
The Baudville staff have become like family at the Equest Center. Their work and generosity has left Ryan, the director, amazed and speechless. She knows the trail will make a difference in so many lives.
“You don’t know how to say thank you,” she said.
