The amazing thing, though, is that Nathalie is blind.
For a few weeks out of the year for the past two years, 11-year-old (soon to be 12,) Nathalie has taken horse riding lessons from Sue Friday, owner of Rolling Oaks Stables in Gansevoort. Each lesson is free, thanks to the Greenwich Lions Club, who provide the funds for both Nathalie and Nick, who is also visually impaired, to take the lessons.
Being blind does not prevent Nathalie from doing the mundane chores of horse riding. Each week, she goes to the stables and prepares a horse for her riding lesson by first grooming it and then helps to saddle it. When she’s on top of the horse, a guide walks alongside her helping her steer. Sue stands in the middle of the arena calling out directions for Nathalie to improve her riding and steering while four volunteers stand in each corner of the arena, one at a time, calling for her to follow their voice. Once Nathalie reaches one voice, she begins to steer the horse toward the next, until her riding lesson is over.
Nathalie’s mother, Betty Sherrange, said Nathalie had her first experience with riding horses when she was only two years old, as a way to improve her posture.
“When she was around two, she was going every week because they told us it would help her balance,” Betty said. “She couldn’t focus on anything, so horseback riding really made her hold her posture. Then we moved here and started these lessons two years ago and she loves it—now she’s asking for her own horse.”
Betty added that horse riding helps Nathalie both mentally and physically.
“For her there’s not much to do, so she loves being here and it helps her,” Betty said. “It helps her self-esteem and makes her feel like she can do something, and it helps her posture and balance. It strengthens some of the muscles she doesn’t use because she’s not used to exercising.”
Sue, owner of the stables, said horses can be therapeutic for all kinds of people.
“This is one of the few times that [handicapped kids] are normal,” Friday explained. “I’ve had abused kids who would come here and it was the first time they’ve ever ridden and felt in control of anything. They would go home and verbalize that fact to their parents—‘I never knew I could make anything bigger than me do what I wanted.’ But here, we can do whatever we need to do.”
Though Nathalie’s parents are confident about her safety, her dad Jim still stands by nervously watching as she brushes Slammer after her lesson.
“I have trust issues with horses,” Jim admitted. “I guess if you’re around them all the time, you get used to them, but I’m not. The whole time she’s over there brushing the horse I’m constantly watching—they get so close.”
Nathalie, on the other hand, said she doesn’t get scared by the horses, and in fact wants to be a jockey when she grows up.
“I like everything about riding horses,” Nathalie said. “Last week and this week I was trotting by myself—it feels cool to ride by myself.”
Betty added that one of Sue’s requirements in riding lessons is that Nathalie has to be smiling.
“She’ll yell out, ‘Are you smiling? You have to smile!’” Betty said.
“Today I was a little more serious because I was riding by myself,” Nathalie admitted.
When it was pointed out that she could still be seen smiling throughout her lesson, Nathalie let out a shy grin and simply said, “I try.”
