WOMAN'S INSIGHT HELPS BLIND KIDS LEARN ROPES

Horse Rides Used to Teach Possibilities

by Toni Laxson

Ten years old and smiling, Ana Havig of Apache Junction rode her first horse Saturday.

The little girl with a bicycle helmet over her blonde French braids asked nonstop questions of the woman guiding the placid horse around the corral.

What are reins? The girth? Can she ride the other horses, too? "Are we going fast?"

The questions were, in part, her way of experiencing the ride without the benefit of sight.

Ana was one of 29 children Saturday at the Phoenix Mohawk Stables for a weekend program put on by the Foundation for Blind Children.

"The goal," said coordinator Xavier Peru, "is to show children that sight is not a prerequisite for outdoor adventures; physical challenges are whatever ambition they take on."

"It's amazing. These kids, we take them to the fair, hiking, camping, we went to The Christmas Carol at the Herberger Theater a couple weeks ago," Peru said.

But the trip to the stables was significant, he said, because of the woman who invited them.

"Okay, we are going to get the horses ready to be ridden. Do you guys want to help?" said Sam Madden, a 40-year-old equestrian, to the blind and visually impaired children surrounding her.

Madden lost her sight to diabetes 11 years ago, yet she competes regularly against sighted equestrians in the elegant and precise form of riding called dressage.

She has to perform exact movements at specific places marked by letters in an arena. She guides her horse, Sugarplum Vision, while her boyfriend's voice provides her with locations over a small radio headset.

"Seeing people like her is going to make these kids believe anything is possible," Peru said. "They may have to adapt to certain things - but anything is possible."

Madden said she waited several years after losing her sight before riding again. When she did, "It just changed my life, it opened the world to me. My mind raced with all the possibilities."

Saturday she hoped to pass that feeling along.

Ana, after her ride, waited without moving for her guide.

"So, did you like it?" asked Lindsay Cullum, a sophomore at Scottsdale's Chaparral High School and a weekly volunteer.

Ana grinned, nodded, put her hand on Cullums and said, "I wanted to go faster."

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