After USA Gymnastics? Bold Move for Metal Health, Equestrian Center Follows Suit With an Unconventional Update

Mental health conversations in sports are the need of the hour. With Olympic champions like Simone Biles and Michael Phelps coming out and talking about their mental health challenges publicly, many sporting organizations have implemented new techniques to support their players. One such initiative is pet therapy, which was started by USA Gymnastics earlier in the year. More recently, at the 2023 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships, U.S. athletes were supported by around 15 fluffy dogs, who helped the athletes cope with stress and relax.

This initiative aims to provide emotional support to the athletes during the competition when they are facing immense performance pressure. A similar strategy is also being undertaken at the Shea Center?s barn in San Juan Capistrano. This therapeutic riding center helps its clients in a number of ways with their therapy horses, which include practices like hippotherapy and adaptive riding lessons.

USA Gymnastics and Shea Center Barn’s similar strategies

Both USA Gymnastics and Shea Center use pet therapy to destress individuals. While USA Gymnastics uses it on athletes, Shea Center has helped more than 1,500 clients through these practices. Shea Center’s pet therapy started with humble beginnings, with only one horse and one client who suffered from cerebral palsy. Soon the equestrian center was able to add 29 therapy horses for its ever-increasing list of clients. Only last month, the Assistance League of Laguna Beach also helped the barn by donating a generous sum of $25,000. This was done to help Shea Center purchase more horses since most of their horses were old and had to be retired.

According to a report by The Capistrano Dispatch, J.F. Shea Center Communications Director Sarah Booth said,??It?s the foundational element of everything that we do here. We?re founded on using the horse because there?s no other machine or system that can do what it does and get the same results.??Booth also highlighted that the equestrian center implements a number of practices that range from therapies to adaptive riding, while also including some first responder programs. The Shea Center has clients that range from 2 to 90 years old and has a team of expert therapists who decide which pet therapy program will be best suited for each client. While it has been smooth sailing for the Shea Center equestrian center, the COVID-19 pandemic posed some real challenges for the barn.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Shea Center

Shea Center has mostly depended on people who used to donate horses to the equestrian center. They used to get a lot of calls every week from people wanting to help the barn by donating horses. All horses were vetted by the barn’s expert team and only then inducted into the Shea Center to help provide therapy. However, this practice suddenly stopped during the pandemic and Shea Center started facing a shortage of horses. Chief Development Officer Agnes McGlone Swanson claimed,??But it completely stopped; literally, like overnight, it stopped. Here, we?ve gone all these years with just getting donated horses, so we ended up looking into buying horses, which led us to then being pushed to buy our very first horse through an online auction.???

Read more: ?A Lot of Pressure?: As Simone Biles, Michael Phelps, and Lewis Hamilton Break Silence on Mental Health USA Gymnastics Takes a Strong Step

All these changes eventually affected the equestrian center’s budget since it is a non-profit organization. The Shea Center is being immensely helped by The Laguna Beach Assistance League, which regularly donates each year to its multiple pet therapy programs. New initiatives like pet therapy will surely help a lot of people and sports persons in a positive way and help these individuals better handle their mental health challenges.

Watch this story: As Athletes Speak for Mental-Health, USA Gymnastics Takes a Game-Changing Decision