Trot out to trick-or-treat with horses

Kids aren't the only ones who know about having fun at Halloween — horses do, too. Eight horses will be looking to share some seasonal festivities with trick-or-treaters at Project HOPE (Horses Opening People's Eyes), a nonprofit assisted therapy program offering people of all ages equine therapy sessions. The agency's annual "Horseback Trick or Treat" will be held from noon to 5 p.m. Oct. 22 and 23 and Oct. 29 and 30 at the nonprofit's Findlay location, 6645 Township Road 215. Visitors will experience a guided horse ride through the woods to 10 different stations where they'll perform a "trick" — like throwing a ball through a hoop — and then get a treat. "The kids love it, and we have people that come every year," said founder Sandra Tebbe. The cost is $15 per child. All ages are welcome and costumes are not required. Registration is requested. Walk-ins will also be taken, but they may have to wait for a ride Tebbe said the idea actually started as an event for her children and their friends. "My kids went to Christian schools and they didn't do Halloween. So I actually started it in my backyard for the kids at their school so they had something to do," she said. The event has become a major fundraiser for the Project Hope. Tebbe said all of the money goes to the horses or to scholarship funds for kids. Like most everything else, she said, the price of grain has doubled. "And most of the horses are rescue horses or came to us with special needs, so it's even more expensive to feed them and take care of them," Tebbe said. Their most recent donation, Rainbow, had never seen a dentist and was "bone thin," she said. "So even though he had been on a pasture, he didn't get any nutrition. He's probably gained 100 if not 200 pounds since we got him. He still looks thin, but we're working on him. And he is the sweetest animal." Origins of HOPE Tebbe started Project HOPE 25 years ago with two children in a barn in Pemberville. "My daughter, whose name is Hope, had dyslexia when she was growing up and nothing worked with her. And when she was 10 years old, she decided that she wanted to ride horses," Tebbe recalled. Tebbe had grown up in the city but said she was always fascinated by horses. Hope's horse, Noah, is now 45, retired and living in Bowling Green. "I wouldn't say it cured her dyslexia, but she wanted it bad enough. She wanted to jump her horse," Tebbe said. Tebbe, a licensed counselor in two private practices at the time, found that working with horses helped the children. "And so I started seeing clients. I started seeing kids and it just took off. There's something about kids and horses, and these are kids where nothing else has worked," she said. Tebbe actually has two children with disabilities. Horses, she said, have changed their lives. "I wouldn't say it's magic, but man, there's something that goes on," she said. "We've helped a lot of kids since then." They built a facility at 16195 W. Poe Road in Bowling Green. A grant from the Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation enabled Tebbe to present a bullying program for 4,000 students in area schools with the help of a little white pony named Hope. "And that's what put us on the map here," she explained. Between 15 and 20 years ago, the Findlay property came up for sale. It was purchased and Project HOPE now rents the three acres for its program. It also became a 501c3 nonprofit agency around the same time. Volunteers fill positions on the board and lay board, and also help keep the program running, Tebbe said. She said therapeutic horseback riding is for anybody who has issues and just needs to spend time with the horses. "It might be a kid going through a bad divorce situation or a kid that has another counselor but it's not working," she said. They host camps every summer where people will come and learn how to ride. No experience is necessary for any activity they offer, she said. Tebbe also does a day treatment in Bowling Green for a group of adolescent girls who are in foster care or have undergone trauma. "They all have an assigned horse and they're asked to develop a relationship with that animal. Then we teach all the different relationship skills - boundaries, conflict resolution, empathy - and they learn it with the animal. They don't trust a soul, but they trust these horses," she said. Tebbe's husband, Allen, runs a program for developmentally disabled adults who do barn work, receive a pay check and learn a vocation. "I think sometimes we're the biggest kept secret around here," Tebbe said. "I think we're known for, if there's a need, we'll find a way to meet it." To register for the trick-or-treat event, visit the agency's Facebook page and click the sign up link or go to: signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10c0d49afa92aabfbc70-ride To volunteer or make a donation to the program, call 419-469-0415 or email projecthope.st@gmail.com