Article Contributed on: 10/19/2006 6:55:28 PM
The horses know ... you can see it in their eyes. They know they have been saved from death for a higher purpose and they work out of gratitude. These gentle giants connect with the children on a spiritual level that defies explanation. That's why the organization is called "Connections."
Cathy Stecklein is the director of this remarkable organization, located at 6351 S. Peoria Street in Centennial. Her horses are rescue horses, some destined for the slaughter house due to injury or health problems, others simply discarded by their previous owners. She teaches them to be therapy horses, but deep inside of their spirits you can tell they understand what they are needed for.
Perhaps it's Cathy's spirit that infuses the horses with this understanding, for she truly senses the connection between horse and child. She even knows which horse is best for a child on any given day depending on each other's mood just like she knows which abandoned horse will make a good therapy horse.
To watch horse and child connect is a very special experience. Autistic children can be moody, detached or easily agitated, but as they mount their chosen steed, a calm resides over child and horse and they go about their therapy in an almost mystical rhythm.
One child barely spoke before starting therapy, another could hardly sit up straight in the saddle on the first day, but after several months of riding the horses that heal hearts, they ride with the pride and control of a practiced equestrian. They smile instead of frown, they speak real words instead of simple utterances, and you can see their true spirit through their sparkling eyes.
This is a special place; the last vestige of open space, surrounded by a white rail fence, as if protecting it from the residential and commercial development that encroaches closer every day. Somehow, as close as it is to hum of civilization, it seems a world away. As the children work with Cathy and the horses in the enclosed arena, soothing music plays and the rays of the sun coming through the door dance among the dust particles gently kicked into the air by the horses' hooves creating an equine and human ballet.
Connections is always in need of funds ... from feeding and stabling the horses to helping parents pay for the therapy; parents who spend every penny they have and then some on anything that will help their children. The organization and Cathy are in need of more funds now than ever.
On Aug. 2, the children, Cathy's horses and Connections nearly lost Cathy when she was kicked in the head by a horse that resides at the rescue but does not belong to Connections. She blames herself for being in the "wrong place at the wrong time", but believes everything happens for a reason.
Suffering from a severe brain injury, a fractured scull, a smashed orbital bone and a broken neck, Cathy lay in a coma for several days. She tells me about "crossing over" - seeing the white light and desperately wanting to go towards it. She was paralyzed and knew she could no longer do the therapy work with the horses and children. "If I can't help the children any more, you might as well take me", she said to God. But God had other plans.
"You're not finished", she heard a voice say, "you must go back". And with that, she woke from her coma to find herself in the hospital bed, in agonizing pain, with the realization that she must fight to find her way back. With her indomitable spirit and willfullness, she has worked hard to regain her strength, both physically and mentally, in an effort to return to the children and the horses who so desperately need her.
After only eight weeks, she is back at Connections, still sporting a neck brace and fighting fatigue, leading the horses and the children in their ballet in the sun. She has renewed purpose and instills in everyone around her the profound example of the human spirit at it's very best.
Besides the ongoing costs associated with running the organization, due to an insurance glitch, Cathy now has over $100,000 of hospital bills she doesn't have the money to pay. She says she will pay it .... a tiny bit at a time if necessary, but the organization comes first - as always. A $1,000 donation to Connections would help the finances of the organization and allow Cathy to breathe a sigh of relief, if only for a short time. Her horses and the children come first, and the hospital bills will just have to wait for now.
It is will great respect and appreciation for Cathy Stecklein that I nominate Connections to receive the $1,000 grant being offered by YourHub.com and the Denver Newspaper Agency. This organization richly deserves the attention, recognition, and support of our community in any way we can offer it. Whether it's by giving our money or our time as volunteers, we can help Cathy and the children and the horses. In return, we receive the true meaning and spirit of horses healing hearts.