Page 21 - Flathead Beacon // 5.20.2015

FLATHEADBEACON.COM COVER MAY 20, 2015 | 21
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Elise Aldrich reaches for Lynnette Holmes’ hand from the back of Sonny the horse during a session; Charlie Jones rests on the back of Imp under a weighted blanket during a therapy session with Holmes; Holmes helps Wyatt Peterson as he works on his alphabet during a session; Jonathan Jacobs brushes Sonny. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
the barn. He knows he rode Sonny the horse, and that he liked the animals very much. Most importantly, he is no longer without words.
“I even got bubbles to make the ride more fun,” Kjell said. “They were very nice to me.”
Bob Burmood moved to the Flathead from Nebraska in the 1970s, taking a job with the Child Develop- ment Center (CDC) in Kalispell. During a conference on cerebral palsy, he stumbled on a presentation about equine therapy for kids.
“Horses have been a passion of mine all my life,” Bob said.
He brought the idea back to the CDC, but it was ini- tially rejected. Still, Bob felt it would benefit kids in the Flathead, so he found families and horses he believed were suitable for one another.
“The first thing I would see immediately was a smile, no matter how painful it may be,” he said.
One client, a young girl with physical issues, board- ed a pony and was seated fully within 15 minutes. Her physical therapist who was present at the session said it would have taken him a full 45-minute session to get her legs fully stretched out like that, and she would have fought the whole time.
Bob filmed sessions, with parental permission, and also had doctors, physical therapists, speech thera- pists, and occupational therapists observe the sessions and take their notes.
“Horses don’t understand disability. They see each person as they are, and accept them as they are. If you treat them with respect, they will respect and love you.”
- LYNNETTE HOLMES
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and received backing in the form of insurance cover- age. Around the same time, he met Dr. William Little, a radiologist who raised Arabian horses and made his arena available for Bob’s program.
Eventually, Bob was directing the CDC office, see- ing a full load of 13 family clients, and running the horse program as well. He stepped down from the di- rector chair, giving him time to focus on his caseload and the horses.
Working with the horses showed more prom- ise than any other therapeutic method Bob had ever seen, and he didn’t want to waste valuable time.
“After doing the first session at the end of the first day at Dr. Little’s barn, I got down on my knees and looked up at heaven and said thank you God, now I know what you have been doing with my life,” Bob said. “I had found what I should be doing.”
He started a volunteer program, where he met Timi, who started to get help with her 15-month-old daughter who was diagnosed with left-side hemipare- sis, making it difficult for her to crawl or use her left hand.
“I loved children and I loved horses, and I thought this would be great,” Timi said.
Before long, Timi was volunteering nine months out of the year. She moved to Bozeman with her then- husband, but felt compelled to get back to where she felt she truly belonged. She and Bob stayed in contact, and started working together again when she moved back to Kalispell.
He presented the film and the notes to the CDC,