Issue date: 2/4/08 Section: Campus

LAKE FOREST - Once a week, David Kolbiarz rides a horse with the help of Northwestern student volunteers before the 14-year-old is helped back into his wheelchair.

The boy has been coming to Equestrian Connection in Lake Forest, Ill., for the past three years as part of his therapy for cerebral palsy. His mother, Lucy Kolbiarz, 45, said she's seen improvement in his balance.

"Horseback riding works," she said. "I can see progress. He's doing great. He's happy here."



Lucy devotes almost all her time to tending her son. On top of David's therapy at Equestrian Connection, she and her son go to occupational, physical and water therapies. But she sees his hippotherapy - "hippos" mean horse in Greek - as one of the most effective treatments for David. In addition, she said it's his favorite part of the week.

It's also a highlight for the NU students who make a 45-minute commute each way every Saturday, led by site leader Miki Sawada.

The Music junior founded the hippotherapy site through OASIS, a volunteer organization, in fall of 2006.

Sawada has been riding horses for about 10 years, but many volunteers don't have any experience with horses at all.

Weinberg sophomore Andrew Meyers grew up in rural Ohio and loved working with animals, but he had never dealt with horses.

"After the first 20 minutes of training, it became easier. It was rewarding," he said.

When Sawada was a child, she rode horses in a Morton Grove barn where Equestrian Connection Director Nicholas Coyne, 47, used to work. Now, she and Coyne cross paths once again.

Coyne runs the facility largely thanks to a mantra he picked up as an Eagle Scout: "You can never leave a man behind."

Coyne, who started riding horses at the South Shore Country Club when he was 5, said the facility depends a lot on the volunteers.

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