SUN VALLEY : Event Planned for Handicapped Youths

Once a year, handicapped children with the Ahead With Horses program in Sun Valley get a chance to show off.

“Our children don’t have ballet recitals, and they don’t have baseball games like other children,” said Denise Tomey, who organized the program’s annual “Fun Day” fund-raiser planned for Sunday. “This is their chance to show that they can do things. You can see the sense of pride in their faces and you don’t feel sorry for them.”

Ahead With Horses is a rehabilitation program that employs an equestrian sport called vaulting to help handicapped children with their therapy.

“Most of them are severally handicapped who haven’t responded to other forms of therapy,” Tomey said. With vaulting, in which children learn to perform gymnastic moves while riding a moving horse, they get less bored or frustrated with the rehabilitation, Tomey said.

“For children who spend every single day in therapy, they don’t think of it as therapy,” Tomey said. The moving horses also gives the children a unique chance to learn about balance and coordination.

Last year, Ronald and Nancy Reagan attended Fun Day, which increased the attendance. The Reagans also donated two of their horses to the program.

The fund-raising event, involving 125 children, is set for Sunday at the Ahead With Horses ranch at 9311 Del Arroyo Drive, Sun Valley. For more information, call 818-767-6373. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children ages 4 to 12 and those under 3 get in free.