Xenophon

Summer homework essay. Reached a writer's block, not quite sure what to do with it now. Criticism welcomed :)

I step out of my mom’s car into a small gravel parking lot. Passing the “Student Parking Only” spots, I walk through a large gate towards a small group of women who seem to be waiting for something. Once I get near, we introduce ourselves �" I meet Connie, a Girl Scout mom; Erin, a student in her twenties; and Rosa, who is visiting from Germany for a year. All of us are new, and none of us quite know what’s going on, except that we are waiting for someone named Janet Shaw. Once Janet arrives, she brings us past the lower pasture and the stalls into the office, where we sit down to watch an introductory video, which takes a while to get up and running, being a videocassette. It’s my first day working at Xenophon, a therapeutic horseback riding center for disabled children.

I’ve been in love with horses for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, my grandparents worked at High Hopes, a therapeutic riding center in Old Lyme, Connecticut, where they lived. I started riding at High Hopes the summer I was four. The camps were technically for kids aged five and up, but because my grandfather was the current president of High Hopes, they let me in early. When I was in second and third grade, my older sister and I took lessons once a week at a stable called Bottomley Farm in the East Bay Hills. I’ve stopped taking lessons, but in the years since then I’ve been around horses whenever I could: Girl Scout summer camps here, trail rides there, and the once-in-a-lifetime stay at a dude ranch. This year, I had some free time, and I wanted to fill it with horses. My mother found Xenophon on the internet and thought it would be a fun thing for me, having been to High Hopes already. It certainly turned out to be �" here I am now, volunteering once a week and absolutely loving it.

Xenophon, after whom the center was named, was a Greek general who wrote the first book about horsemanship based on treating the horse with kindness. The founders of Xenophon Therapeutic Riding Center thought that his were good ideas to base their center on. Xenophon is a center for teaching disabled children how to ride horses, with the intention of improving their mental and physical abilities. Some common disabilities we tend to see are Down’s Syndrome, strokes, and autism. The main purpose of Xenophon is to help the children: being on a horse keeps them from getting too stiff by putting them into a new position, especially the students who spend the rest of their life in wheelchairs; playing games improves cognitive ability; holding toys and other objects help with their fine motor skills. In addition, we encourage vocalizing by asking the students to say things like “walk on” to the horses and “thank you” to the staff. Some students say their first words at Xenophon. The students love coming to Xenophon, and often just the idea of riding a horse puts a great big smile on their faces.

For every student in a lesson, there are four staff members. First is the horse handler. The horse handler’s job is to walk the horse and keep it in line. Next are the two sidewalkers, who watch the student and keep them from getting hurt. Finally, there’s the instructor, who oversees everything and tells everyone what to do. I’m a sidewalker, which means that I pay attention to the rider and only the rider. If they seem off center on the horse’s back, I tell the instructor and the instructor helps the student fix it. If the student can’t remember which way is left and which is right, I tap their hand to remind them. During the lesson, we try to let the student do as much as possible on their own, so in this case, instead of taking hold of the student’s hand and pulling it right or left, we show them which way is which and let them move their own body.

On a typical Wednesday afternoon, my mom picks me up after school with a burrito and we drive straight to Orinda for Xenophon. I usually get there around 2:45, and the first lesson starts at 3. I have to go into the office to put on my name tag, so I might as well grab some water and a snack while I wait for the lesson to begin. Then I check the chart that’s hanging on a clipboard outside the office to see which lessons I’ll be in. For the first lesson, I’m with John*, a boy who’s about twelve years old. I don’t know for sure what his disability is, but it affects his legs, so he has trouble walking and tends to stumble and fall down. You wouldn’t know it if you saw him on a horse, though; he has perfect balance up there. His hands were also affected, so one thing we work on in his lessons is holding objects such as batons. He enjoys talking, and if he does well in the lesson, at the end of it he gets John Time, which is when we walk around the arena and he gets to talk about whatever he wants to. At 3:30, the lesson is over, and the staff gets a fifteen-minute break before the next one. I wash my hands in the office, have something to eat and a drink of water, and get ready for the next lesson with Olivia*, who is fifteen years old and has a mild form of Down’s Syndrome. Olivia has been with Xenophon for a long time, and is one of the more experienced riders. She often comes to Xenophon wearing a beautiful blue riding jacket that her great grandmother made. She does most of the riding on her own; there isn’t much that we do to help her. Her lesson goes by pretty quickly. Sometimes we play games, but usually we just let her enjoy being on the horse. Next I get to work with a new student, Sasha*. Sasha had a stroke in utero, which affected the right side of her body. After having many years to learn how to deal with it, she seems like any able-bodied nine-year-old. She still has trouble moving her right hand, and walks with a very slight limp, but other than that she has control of her body. She does other sports, like swimming and archery, but had never ridden a horse before coming to Xenophon. Sasha catches on to our rituals of telling the horse “walk on” to go and “whoa” to stop right away. She is very eager to try new things, and absolutely loves riding. After the lesson’s over, I check the chart again and see that I’m not going to be in the 5:15 lesson, the last one of the day. My mom is going to pick me up at 6 as per usual, so I find one of the directors and ask if there’s anything I can do to help.

“Well,” she says, “the stalls could really use a good sweeping. And while you’re at it, it would be amazing if you could clean out the water troughs as well.”

“Of course!” I reply, happy to help. The stalls are dusty and hot, and the water troughs are utterly disgusting, but I’ll do it without complaining because it means I get to spend time with the horses. During lessons, the horses are like seeing-eye dogs: you can’t pet them or do anything that might distract them from their jobs. As an avid horse lover, I find this part of working at Xenophon to be one of the most difficult. I take any chance I get to say hi to the horses off-duty, and tend to take much more time than necessary to do any odd job that involves being around them. We have some truly great horses at Xenophon. In order to work at a therapeutic riding center, a horse has to be calm and easy to work with. In addition, the horse has to be used to all the toys and objects we work with �" Beanie Babies, hula hoops, water, a mail box, etc. If the horse spooks during a lesson, it could be very dangerous or even fatal for the student. Before a horse can start at Xenophon, we have to make absolutely sure that it will be perfect in the lesson. There have been times when a horse was having a bad day and we had to take the rider off that horse and put them onto another to avoid the risk of injury.

It’s been amazing working at Xenophon. I get to be around horses for a few hours, which automatically makes my day better. I love working with kids as well, and the students at Xenophon are wonderful �" the first time I was in John’s lesson, he accidentally called me Sophia, and when I corrected him, he said he was very sorry and gave me a hug. I’ve become good friends with the other Wednesday volunteers and staff as well. Finally, at the risk of sounding cliché, working at Xenophon makes me feel like I’m doing something good for the world. This is something I would like to continue doing in the future; if I end up in a place where that’s not possible, I would definitely think about starting a center myself. When I’m at Xenophon, I am truly happy.

Author's Note

This is my summer homework. The prompt was to write an essay about anything in any style I want. I wrote this a few days ago, and it's not anywhere near perfect but I've done just about as much as I can with it. Please comment!