Riding High Farm celebrates 30 years

It's been 30 years since a Brooklyn couple and their family moved to Upper Freehold and started a horseback-riding center for people with disabilities.

JEFF GRANIT staff Erin Kelly, 10, of Allentown, demonstrates good balance as she rides Angel while instructor Jessica Schenski looks on during a riding lesson at Riding High Farm in Upper Freehold on Oct. 2. The farm is celebrating its 30th anniversary as a therapeutic riding facility. Since that time, thousands of students have learned to ride and received therapy in the Handicapped High Riders Club at Riding High Farm on Route 526. Barbara and Hanen Isaac started the nonprofit specialneeds horseback-riding program in 1979. The farm is now considered a premier, accredited therapeutic riding center with the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA).

The club provides 200-250 lessons a month year-round, serving between 50 and 55 individuals, according to executive director Dennis Kahn. There are also many groups, such as the group home Project Freedom in Robbinsville, that visit the farm for lessons, he said.

Clockwise from top: Connor Goodwin, 7, of Allentown, gets ready to ride Lots of Luck at Riding High Farm in Upper Freehold on Oct. 2. Erin Kelly, 10, of Allentown, rides around the farm's indoor arena. The NARHA was founded in 1969, but horseback riding wasn't widely recognized as a valuable form of therapy for the handicapped until 1975. At that time, Barbara Isaac was running a stable in North Branch.

After reading an article in Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar magazine about Octavia Brown, an early proponent of therapeutic riding who founded the Somerset Hills Riding Club, Isaac reached out to Brown. Brown became her mentor, and together they founded Horseback Riding for the Handicapped (HRH), the umbrella organization for therapeutic riding services in New Jersey.

Barbara and Hanen Isaac had been looking for a suitable farm where they could begin their own therapeutic riding program for a year and a half prior to finding Riding High Farm. The stable has space for 13 horses, but the program currently employs 10.

The couple's children, Joseph, Paul and Sue Ann, were longtime volunteers for the therapeutic riding program. Hanen Isaac died last year.

Kahn has served as president of the HHRC board since 1985 and as executive director of the HHRC since July 2006. The North Brunswick resident became involved with the program when his 2-year-old son, Justin, started riding at the farm.

Justin had been enrolled in an infant stimulation program at the Cerebral Palsy Center (Lakeview School) in Edison when the school's physical therapist suggested he take riding lessons at Riding High Farm. Twenty-four years later, Justin is still riding.

Kahn said that he immediately saw the benefits of riding for his son. Justin had tight muscle tone, and riding relaxed him and gave him more range of motion, his father said.

The farm serves the special needs community and always seeks to expand its services, Kahn said. A new day program will help train developmentally disabled people in stable management, with the goal of having them work on local horse farms, he said. The farm also has partnered with the Trenton based Allies Inc., a nonprofit group dedicated to providing housing, health care, employment and recreational opportunities to people with special needs in the communities of their choice. Allies and Riding High Farm have teamed up to offer an organic farming program for people with special needs, according to Kahn.

The public can visit the farm or www.ridinghighfarm.org to learn more about its programs and services. All contributions to the charitable organization are tax-deductible.

To celebrate the program's three-decade milestone, the public is invited to a Beef and Beer Dinner Dance 7-11 p.m. Oct. 16 at the Ancient Order of the Hibernaians, 2419 Kuser Road, Hamilton. The fundraiser will feature food, music, raffles and more.

Tickets cost $30 per person (attendees must be 21 years of age) and may be purchased by contacting Lorrie Their at lorrieth@ yahoo.com or by calling Riding High Farm at 609-259-3884.