STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Mark and Lisa Mary and their daughter Adisyn traded their cowboy boots for cross-country ski boots this week and made their way to Swiftsure Ranch.

There they joined artist Melissa Graves-Brown in a day of skiing and snowshoeing under the big cottonwood trees that dot the equine therapy center south of Bellevue.

While the snowshoeing was impeccable, the groomed skate lanes were no match for the manicured corduroy at Sun Valley Nordic Center and Galena Lodge.

But Linda Goldman and Val Logsdon didn’t mind.

“It’s an adventure,” said Goldman. “A chance to ski something we’ve never skied before.”

Jack Sept, who has donated a handful of leather-tooled riding chaps to the ranch for its annual Cowboy Boy Ball fundraiser, craned his neck to look up at a towering cottonwood tree.

“See the red shafted flicker?” he said.

In a year when so many cherished events like Ski the Rails have been cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic, the outing at Swiftsure Ranch provided a welcome diversion.

Kate Rosenkrans and her son Cache Duininck handed out 20 dozen chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies she had baked, along with hot cocoa they stirred in a big pot that could just as easily have held cowboy coffee.

Rosekrans, a board member at Swiftsure Ranch, has been a fan of the equine therapy program since it was the Sagebrush Arena north of Hailey years ago.

“I have a great passion for horses and patients,” she said. “I bring a 5-year-old for lessons and it’s been wonderful to see her balance, core strength, and eye-hand coordination improve as she performs tasks like throwing balls and taking rings from poles while riding her horse.”

Sandra Flattery and Ellen Fastow snowshoed through the sensory park, banging noise chimes and looking through a telescope.

“We’ve come to support a great cause,” said Flattery, who volunteered with the ranch before the pandemic.

They weren’t the only ones enjoying the tactile and auditory experiences in the sensory park.

“I like the bells,” said 5-year-old James Peters as his family began its venture down Chicken Run.

The family stopped to look at posters telling about the horses, who serve as therapists on four hooves

Like Buster, an 8-year-old gelding who can be quite the prankster and escape artist, sneaking out of his pen after opening the gate. And Roxy, a somewhat sassy horse who was donated to the program in 2014 and has been feted for her work with a young boy with autism.

Charlotte Westendorf, another board member, manned a second hot chocolate stand, doling out big chocolate cupcakes and brownies for those needing fuel during their ski and shoe around the ranch.

“I love seeing the kids’ faces when they see the horses. They just light up,” she said.

Swiftsure provides free equine therapy to more than a hundred adults and children dealing with a wide range of challenges from Parkinson’s Disease to learning disabilities.

Equine therapy can help those struggling with speech and language practice breath control. It helps those with autism learn how to sequence activities with multiple steps, such as learning how to put a saddle on a horse.

It helps youngsters improve their fine motor skills by helping with the buckles on a saddle. It helps improve communication and decrease hyperactivity in others. And the horses prove motivating for those who balk at participating in other types of therapy

One of the youngsters who has benefitted from the equine therapy, Westendorf said, is a redhead named Owen who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 2 and given next to no chance of ever walking. His upper spine was misaligned and his right side was weak.

His parents began bringing him to Swiftsure and now he not only walks but runs to greet his horse. He’s improved his balance and posture, learning to sit and stand. He improved his motor skills and social skills and gained confidence and independence with the help of his maned therapist.

Owen’s mother Theresa says that the therapy that he’s received at Swiftsure has changed his brain forever.

“Small miracles happen every time he visits Swiftsure,” Westendorf said.