STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Kristy Heitzman has never had any trouble connecting with people. With her big smile and exuberant manner, she’s quick to engage people and focus her attention on them as if they’re the only one that matter.

That said, the former director of the Blaine County Education Foundation was a little intimidated when she took the reins of the Swiftsure Therapeutic Equine Ranch south of Bellevue earlier this year. Having never been around horses before, she found herself a little timid around the 1,000- and 1,200-pound steads that provide physical and emotional therapy to adults and children with a wide range of challenges ranging from Parkinson’s disease to depression and anxiety.

“I was watching the volunteers lift a person on a horse and I got all sweaty,” she recalled. “They told me, ‘Breathe.’ ”

Ella Westendorf showed attendees how to rope.

During the past several months Heitzman has warmed up to the horses. Dusty, one of the participants at Swiftsure, taught her how to groom a horse named Buster. She took her first ride on a horse named Tony, over time graduating to trail rides.

And, since, she has become a champion of the gentle therapists. It was in this stead that she greeted dozens of adults and children ranging from their 80s to well, a few months old, to Swiftsure’s inaugural Barn Dance and BBQ fundraiser Friday night.

The Barn Dance and BBQ replaced the Blazing Pumpkins that Swiftsure started in 2015, which featured hundreds of carved lit pumpkins lining pathways, along with appearances by a headless horseman or two.

Heitzman said they decided to stage the new event because Swiftsure had several new workers, and she didn’t want them to have to undertake such a time-intensive event right off the bat.

Pamela Ridgway leads a group in line dancing.

The “Boot Stomp,” as some called it, faced tough competition, what with the first game of the World Series being aired on TV, along with Boise State University’s rivalry football game with the University of Nevada.

But people came, some of them decked out in rhinestone studded cowboy shirts and Stetson hats, and most of them wearing cowboy boots.

“We’ve supported Swiftsure ever since we moved here,” said Tish Jochums. “We believe in what they’re doing.”

Attendees were treated to Big Jon’s BBQ prepared by Carey caterer Jon Parkinson, that received gushing reviews from people like Myrna Oliver. The BBQ featured delicious brisket and chicken, along with mac ‘n cheese, a Southern cornbread bursting with corn and a peach cobbler using Tina Metzler’s grandmother’s recipe.

Dennis Hanggi tries his hand at roping.

She and Parkinson were fresh off serving up an authentic Basque dinner at one of the Trailing of the Sheep Festival’s Farm to Table dinners, Metzler said.

“My great grandfather was Basque. So, we did lamb chops, lamb meatballs and a Basque tortilla dish layered with eggs and onions.”

The sustenance came in handy, given the bull riding, steer roping and line dancing that awaited cowpokes inside the equestrian arena.

While a cowboy tried the mechanical bull at high speed, getting bucked off a couple times, 10-year-old Kami Simpson of Carey tried it at a lower speed.

Tom and Tish Jochums were the first to hit the dance floor.

“I was scared at first—it’s way harder than it looks,” she said.

“You have to squeeze with your legs,” added her sister Harper Simpson.

Ella Westendorf, a Wood River High School sophomore, showed attendees how to lasso the two plastic steers sitting on the sawdust floor.

“I’ve been doing this off and on for three years,” said Westendorf, who volunteered at Swiftsure over the summer. “It’s all in your wrist and pointing the rope. And not getting in your head.”

The big draw, of course was dancing to the Kim Stocking Band’s mix of country western songs. A half-hour into the music, Pamela Ann Ridgway, who was dressed in a smart looking cowboy outfit and tight jeans, called for line dancers.

A square full of adults and children high-toed it to the front of the stage.

Sheelagh Hunter and her husband Andy watched the dancers hook their thumbs in their jean loops and pretend to lasso the air from the bars where they were serving wine and beer. The couple, who chose the Wood River Valley for their retirement home after years of coming here to ski,  has been volunteering with Swiftsure for five years.

“Sheelagh had horses when she was growing up in Gig Harbor, Wash., and I like horsing around,” quipped Hunter.

Sheelagh said she shows participants how to brush a horse and saddle them. By the end of the session, she added, she can unleash the horse and let the client ride on their own.

 “I never realized when I was riding horses as a girl that horses could be helpful in addressing things like depression and anxiety—there weren’t any equine therapy centers that I know of them,” said Sheelagh. “We wanted to get involved in the community and we like what they do here.”

“We like the idea of using horses as equine therapy,” added Doug Sommer, who also volunteers with his wife Suzanne. “This is an opportunity to contribute in a small way.”