Nancy Miller has spastic cerebral palsy and uses a walker, but when she gets atop her favorite horse, Jack, her muscles relax.

Miller, who lives at Villa de Vida in Poway, has been attending the Helen Woodward Animal Centers Therapeutic Riding program for a few years, although she has been riding since she was a kid.

Im a horse lady, Miller, 69, said. I love it. Its relaxing. Its fun.

Miller rides once a week at the Helena Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe. The program works with riders with special needs through equine-assisted activities. It serves students aged 4 and older to enhance physical, cognitive, social-emotional and motor skills, officials said.

Horseback riding can lend independence and mobility to a person with disabilities who may be otherwise restricted.

The primary goal of Equine Assisted Learning is to teach and support life skills through guided horse interactions. This experiential approach integrates human-horse interaction that is guided by an equine specialist in mental health and learning, said Courtney Mellor, Therapeutic Riding Program manager at Helen Woodward Animal Center.

As horses use mostly non-verbal communication and are in tune with human behavior, they can help participants to better understand and learn how our non-verbal communication might be influencing or impacting others in their lives, she said. Through interactions with the horses, participants learn a heightened sense of self-awareness which is important in order to reveal patterns of behavior while also giving the opportunity to think in a new way.

Miller said her doctors have suggested horse therapy since she was young.

I think its a good thing for me because of my cerebral palsy, Miller said.

I just love being on the horse, communicating with the horse and being relaxed, she said. My story with horses is that I just love them.

For more information on the program, visit https://animalcenter.org/programs-services/therapeutic-riding.

More:
Poway woman with cerebral palsy finds relaxation with equine therapy - The San Diego Union-Tribune