Meet our newest Therapeutic Riding Instructor Haley Mathews.

Haley grew up riding horses on her family’s cattle ranch in San Ramon, California.  She graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in Agricultural Science with a concentration in horses.  Right out of college she worked with at-risk high school students in various countries and Hawaii for three years.   Haley worked for 12 years as the assistant director of Shepherd’s Gate in Livermore, a homeless shelter for women and children.

In 2008, when her 3 children were in High School, Haley became involved with therapeutic riding at SonRise Equestrian in Castro Valley where she continues to teach riding lessons.  She received her PATH certification in 2014.  The beautiful connection between the horse and the child is what Haley loves most about therapeutic riding.  She joined the Xenophon team in January 2015.

When not teaching riding lessons, Haley works at her family’s commercial real estate business and manages the cattle ranch in San Ramon where she and her husband, Brian, live.  She loves walking on the ranch with her two dogs Max and Zorro.

It has been a wild and woolly week at the center, with Mother Nature sending much needed rain on Wednesday and Thursday that drenched the grounds as well as people and horses.  While it may have dampened heads and clothes, it couldn’t dampen the smiles of those participating in Xenophon’s first Family Ride-A-Long week.  For this last week of the 2014 season, our therapeutic riding participants were able to invite a family member or friend to ride along in their lesson with them.  We had moms, dads, siblings, cousins, and, yes, even grandmas don helmets and mount up to experience what our riders do every week..  From warm-up stretches to game activities to trotting, they did it all be it in a surcingle or a saddle.  Our children became the instructors as they coached parents on how to put on their helmet, or older siblings how to correctly hold the reins and steer.   The comments from our parents were amazing.  One parent responded, “I have watched my son ride every week and he makes it look so easy.  This is not easy at all and I can feel that I am using all my muscles.”  Said another parent, “This really made me appreciate the horse and what they do for every one of their riders.”  Words can not describe the smiles of the children as they watched their loved one ride next to them.  Xenophon was a very happy place to be this week!

Christmas Gift Donations

Are you looking for that perfect gift for a loved one or friend? Give the gift of smiles. Would you like to honor the memory of a loved one by a gift that changes lives? Make a donation in someone’s honor or memory and help sponsor a child’s riding lesson or hippotherapy session. Donating is easy. Simply click below and Paypal will walk you through the process. For Honorary gifts, please include your recipient’s name and address. For a memorial gift, please indicate the name and address of the person to whom you would like the acknowledgement sent. We will send a special Christmas donation certificate notifying them of the special gift made in their honor or memory. You can also mail a check to Xenophon Therapeutic Riding Center at PO Box 16, Orinda, CA 94563 and we will send the certificate straight away. Please be sure to include the recipient’s name and address with your check.

 

Amount of Donation

Option 1 $25.00 USDOption 2 $50.00 USDOption 3 $75.00 USDOption 4 $100.00 USDOption 5 $150.00 USD

Recipient’s Name

Recipient’s Address

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Get ready parents, siblings, cousins and friends, our riders are about to teach you a thing or two!  Our Therapeutic Riding program is hosting a “Family Ride Along” the last week of lessons, November 17th to the 22nd.  The program provides the opportunity for a parent or family member to ride a lesson with our students,  You get to experience first hand the fun and challenges your rider faces when they mount each week.  Get ready to learn a lot.  Please contact Danielle if you have not already signed up!

While the daylight kept the ghosts and goblins at bay, the rest of Halloween’s fun found its way to Xenophon last week with pumpkins and costumes and trick-or-treating on horseback.  Scarecrows on hay bales greeted riders on the sensory trail and decorations adorned the deck and sitting area.  The highlight of the day for most participants was the opportunity to “dress up” their sidewalker or steed from the costume basket.   Good-natured volunteers donned hats, wigs, tattoo sleeves, boas and crazy glasses.  Even the horses were not left out and meekly accepted purple hair and other costume accessories.  If costumes weren’t the thing, then decorating a “Mr. Pumpkin” (that would be a pumpkin with Mr. Potato Head parts), was just the ticket for other riders.  All in all a fun week at the center for everyone.

Just a reminder to all parents and volunteers that Xenophon will be on session break next week, September 29, 2014 through October 5, 2014.  Our horses will have a much deserved break so that they will be ready to go for Session 5.  Staff will be checking messages, but there might be a slightly longer response time due to adjusted hours at the center.

This is the perfect opportunity…Monday, September 29th from 5:00 – 9:00PM, come experience some of the best Italian food in the Bay Area, while being waited on by the Xenophon staff and board members. 

Yes, that is right, the Xenophon staff will be moonlighting as waiters in order to earn your tips.  Gianni’s Italian Bistro in San Ramon opens their restaurant on Monday evenings (a day they are normally closed), so that a non-profit can come in, provide the wait staff and then keep all of the tips earned that evening.

Reservations Required.  Please call (925)820-6969.  Book early, as last year the event sold out.

 

Tail gate party, hot dogs, popcorn, great baseball and spectacular fireworks.  That was just a bit of the fun had by the 50 folks who participated in Xenophon’s trip to the Oakland A’s  game on Saturday, August 23, 2014.  All who attended were fortunate to see the A’s win against the Los Angeles Angels, with whom they are in a battle for first place.  After the game, the fireworks display put on by Disney was the perfect ending to a great evening..  We hope you will consider joining in next year!

Who would have thought anyone could get excited about mucking? Well a good portion of our volunteers are doing just that, thanks to the addition of a battery-powered muck cart. Mr. Michael Gentile of Portland, Maine, donated this fantastic self-propelled wheel barrow to the center. With a twist of the wrist, this fine machine moves off with no physical effort. It can be used to take bags of hay up for feeding, or loaded with multiple paddocks of manure. Our handyman extraordinaire, Jim Taylor, installed gates in the lower arena, which now allow the muck truck to be driven to the end of the arena and dumped directly into the compost bins from above. Gone are the days of hoisting a muck bucket over the 4-foot wall of the compost bins. Gone are the multiple trips to and from the paddocks so that the old muck buckets wouldn’t be too heavy to lift. Thanks to our new system, life just got easier for a lot of people. Thank you, Mr. Gentile for this amazing donation. Thank you, Jim, for installing the fantastic gates. Volunteers, if you would like to learn how to operate our muck truck, check with Christine.