Sitting atop a five-foot-high, chestnut-colored horse named Frank, 5-year-old Brock Waszgis holds tight for a physical therapy session that will help him gain balance. He holds a long mallet in his little hand, pulls it back slightly and swings it forward to knock a ball off an orange cone. For most people, it’s a game, but for Brock, this is one session of many at Heartland Equine Therapeutic Riding Academy (HETRA) near Gretna. 

Wearing a helmet to protect himself, the Omaha youngster remains steady as a volunteer leads Frank, a 13-year-old Haflinger, slowly around an indoor arena. Two additional volunteers walk on either side of Brock to keep him steady. A therapist stands nearby, directing the activity. 

Zigzagging through cones and grabbing discs off tall poles helps with Brock’s eye-hand coordination and muscle building, said Edye Godden, longtime chief executive officer of HETRA and an occupational therapist. 

“It’s going to help us physically,” Godden said. “So, we know that when we ride a horse, we have to use our core a lot. We also know that the horse’s pelvis and our pelvis are similar. When a horse takes a step and is walking, it’s giving our body feedback, as if we were walking.” 

For the Waszgis family, this is much more than horseback riding. HETRA offers Brock an opportunity for an improved life. Brock was born with an underdeveloped cerebellum, which impacts his movement. Equine therapy has helped with balance and more, said Brandon Waszgis, Brock’s father. The youth is also on the autism spectrum and is nonverbal.

HETRA opened its doors in 1989 with one horse and three volunteers. Moving between area farms and stables over its first decade, HETRA found its first solid home base at Godden’s Valley farm in 1999. Godden became CEO and worked to grow the service.

Realizing HETRA’s popularity as an equine-assisted services program, Godden knew the organization needed a larger area than her farm. Plus, she wanted to find a permanent home where the program could continue to grow.

In 2014, HETRA’s board of directors approved the purchase of a 25-acre farm with a large, existing arena. The arena gives HETRA enough room to have seven teams working with horses and clients at one time, as well ample therapy rooms and a stable for its 30 horses.

With a staff consisting of physical, occupational and speech therapists, and certified riding instructors, HETRA is open daily (except for certain holidays). It also relies on more than 26,000 volunteer hours each year, around 500 per week. Its 180 volunteers receive extensive training before being allowed to lead a horse. The organization attempts to pair clients with the same volunteers to provide a sense of stability.

The organization works with adults and children facing a variety of physical and mental health challenges, such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, brain tumors, head or spinal cord injuries, visual impairments, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder and strokes.

“It’s similar to an outpatient clinic, where you work on sitting, balance, or crossing the midline or bilateral use of the hands or fine motor coordination, as well as gross motor coordination,” she said.

Horses add a unique aspect to therapy, Godden said.

“From a mental health or emotional standpoint, there’s a lot of connection between the horse and the rider,” she said. “Horses are very intuitive animals, so they sense our energy. They’ve been trained to be desensitized to a lot of stuff because they might have a participant who is very loud or very active with their hands. We spend a lot of time not only training them but conditioning them, so they’re set to do their jobs well.”

HETRA doesn’t want horses that are too young. Mid-to-upper teens are the perfect horses for the job, like Frank the Haflinger. While HETRA sponsors fundraisers to buy equines for the center, people have donated or loaned horses to the program.

But not all participants ride horses.

“I really like the ball drop activity,” Godden said. “We have the person write their daily roles, like mom, worker, daughter, and they carry these balls as they lead a horse. They drop balls as they navigate an obstacle course. So, we talk with them about how they feel when they drop the ball as a mom or other role.” 

Besides riding horses, HETRA has four miniature horses that are used for grooming and leading sessions for people in wheelchairs. The miniatures are used for after school programs, as well as emotional learning programs, making more than 40 public appearances in communities from Fremont to Omaha last year.

Miniatures are also excellent resources for people who haven’t been around horses, especially people who are nervous and anxious around large horses.

Addressing participants’ anxiety helped Cooper Jorgensen, 18, overcome his fear of horses when he first visited HETRA in 2014, said his mother, Mary Jorgensen.

“The first day we came here, he wasn’t having anything to do with the horses,” Jorgensen said. “Edye had to literally put him on a horse. I was like, ‘Oh my, they’re not going to let us come back.’ She said to come back the next day.”

Godden first placed him on a smaller horse, but when Cooper saw Lady, he wanted to ride Lady. Lady became his favorite horse.

Cooper has gained confidence through equine therapy. Going from having a leader and two side walkers to riding solo, Jorgensen appreciates the help HETRA has provided her son, who has autism. Today, his best horse friend at the farm is Halo.

“They are a good fit,” Jorgensen said, “Halo just seems to get him.”