The covered riding ring at 880 Runnymede Road is home to what must be the most bucolic setting for physical therapy imaginable. A little boy wearing a blue helmet tugs on his mother’s arm as he races past the old white dairy barn toward the ring. Once inside the shady enclosure, he’s helped onto the broad back of a patient horse and surrounded by an entourage — a therapist and volunteers with the National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy (NCEFT).
Hippotherapy uses the natural movements of horses to help patients with neuromuscular disorders improve their strength, balance and coordination. It may sound unusual, but it’s clearly a lot more fun than traditional occupational or physical therapy sessions.
This summer, the NCEFT moved from its rustic sloping property on Portola Road in Woodside to a much more elegant spread at the former Charter Oaks boarding stable, in a property swap with Tom and Stacey Siebel. The Siebels gave up the freshly renovated riding facility they’d renamed Dearborn Stables and threw in a $2 million endowment, in exchange for the NCEFT’s property on Portola Road that just happens to be adjacent to their own.
“We have 11.64 acres, and every square inch of it is devoted to health and healing,” enthuses Rita Almon, the center’s executive director.
From her office in the barn’s loft, Ms. Almon has a sweeping view of the tree-lined property and the surrounding hillsides. Out the back door, there are pastures and turn-outs for the horses, and a trio of Nubian goats charged with clearing poison oak and brush from the property.
With the extra elbow-room afforded by the large, mostly flat parcel, NCEFT is expanding its programs and sharing space with several other equine organizations. Besides Ms. Almon’s office, the renovated 1920s barn houses a therapy room, stalls for the center’s 20 or so horses, a spacious new accessible bathroom, and a full-time caretaker’s quarters.
Horses from B.O.K. Ranch share the main barn with NCEFT horses, and B.O.K. uses the facility for its adaptive riding programs for disabled riders, she said.
Veterinarian Wayne Browning of Bayhill Equine Inc. is renting a portion of the property for his EquiSport equestrian therapy and rehab center, and eight horses from the Mounted Search and Rescue Unit of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office are stabled on the property. Dr. Browning also provides care for NCEFT’s horses.
A new wheelchair lift was donated by the Semper Fi Fund to NCEFT for its innovative new program for brain-injured veterans from the polytrauma unit of the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. The program is entirely funded by private donations, at no cost to the VA or the soldiers, said Ms. Almon, and the program may expand to include visually impaired veterans.
While NCEFT doesn’t offer public boarding stables, equestrians should one day be able to ride through the western end of the property. The center’s board of directors just voted in favor of giving a dedicated trail easement to the town of Woodside, Ms. Almon said. “It will be called the trail of hope and healing,” and it will link to two existing trails, she said.
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