FELLSMERE — Dozens of horses carrying riders will take to the streets of Fellsmere in March, trotting and cantering to raise money to fund Wounded Warriors programs at a Fellsmere stable. Cindy Devine and her daughter, Marci Dalton, recently approached the Fellsmere City Council to get its blessing for the Florida Equestrian Foundation event.
“There’s going to be a lot of horses in town,” Dalton told the council.
They believe they will have no fewer than 50 riders and expect to have about 125 participate in the fundraising 10- mile ride.
Devine described the Ride to Remember as a 25K – or 10-mile – ride that would take about 2 hours.
Devine and Dalton run Scarlett Stables, located at 9745 141st Ave., in Fellsmere. Along with raising money, Devine said she wants to raise awareness for veterans’ needs.
One hundred riders going through town, “that makes a huge presentation,” she said after the council meeting.
When the council asked what their route would be, Devine said they were still working on that.
“We don’t want to clog city streets,” she said.
They plan to use the Fellsmere City Hall complex as the starting and ending point.
Having as many as 125 horses riding through town at the same time didn’t appear to be a problem for the council.
“We have people ride horses in town all the time,” Councilwoman Sara Savage said.
“That’s Fellsmere,” Vice Mayor Joel Tyson added.
They encouraged Devine and Dalton to work with the Fellsmere Police Department and the city and county’s public works departments to coordinate road crossings and closings.
The Ride to Remember is scheduled for Noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday March 23 and much of the details are still being fleshed out.
The Florida Equestrian Foundation is a non-profit established a few months ago as a way to provide equine-assisted therapy to those who need it.
For veterans, through Wounded Warriors, the foundation provides mental therapy and counseling using horses.
Devine got the idea for the event after attending an Equine-Assisted Therapy seminar and hearing about the issues military personnel face once home from deployment.
“It just blew my mind,” Devine said of what the veterans go through.
She hopes to provide a place where veterans, and those still in active duty, can re-assimilate.
One way the Florida Equestrian Foundation can do that is through an exercise called behavioral mirroring.
Devine explained that the therapy horses mirror the emotions, feelings and actions of those in the ring with them, helping them to see what they’re doing.
She used one military family as an example. The family, a military dad, mom, and three daughters, came in to deal with anger issues.
The 17-year-old girl had a big chip on her shoulder, Devine said. The mom was fed up with taking care of the family alone. The dad felt he served the government and the government only and wasn’t getting the support from home that he needed. And the younger girls, 12 and 7, were tired of their parents fighting every time dad came home.
The family was brought into the ring with six horses. A counselor and Devine facilitated the exercise. The family was asked to select one horse and get the horse to move from one side of the ring to the other.
“It was a no-brainer,” Devine said.
Or, at least, it should have been.
The family members couldn’t agree on the horse, and as they argued and their voices got louder, the horses started moving away from each other.
As it went on, two horses started biting at each other, a third kicked at the two, and a fourth began shaking with its ears back.
It happened in a matter of three and a half minutes, Devine said.
The dad stepped away from the family and went up to a fifth horse and embraced it, patting it on the nose.
The counselor paused the session and asked him why he had comforted the horse.
“The horse doesn’t deserve to be yelled at,” he replied, according to Devine.
The family members gasped. It was a turning point for the family.
The counselor asked the family to begin the exercise again – and this time, they communicated without yelling.
They were able to perform the task and shared high fives all around when done.
It’s one such therapy program the Ride to Remember fundraiser would benefit. Other programs include camping and group therapy sessions.
“This is the first,” Devine said of the Ride to Remember in March, adding that she hopes to make it an annual event to further help Wounded Warriors.
Early registration is $50 and includes an event T-shirt. The first 25 to register will receive a prize bag of as-of-yet-unknown goodies.
To register, or for more information about the Florida Equestrian Foundation, call Cindy Devine at (772) 538-3748 or visit www.FloridaEquestrianFoundation.org.