50 People for 50 Years: Naomi Lorch, Retired Physical Therapist with Easterseals
Naomi correcting a rider’s hand position while back riding (style of riding that has since been discontinued).
In 1972, Naomi Lorch was working as a physical therapist at the Easterseal Center in Morris Plains, NJ. Octavia Brown, founder of Somerset Hills Handicapped Riders Club (now Mane Stream), was seeking potential riders who could benefit from her new riding program. They connected, and Naomi helped recruit children who came to the Easterseal Center for therapy and were interested in adaptive (therapeutic) riding. Octavia shared, “Naomi as a PT immediately understood the potential benefits for the clients she was seeing in traditional therapy – and while “hippotherapy” hadn’t been thought of back then - she was able to give wonderful advice and insight into how each person could benefit from therapeutic riding.”
Naomi recalls, “Once the classes started, I participated in one of them on a weekly basis. I was able to offer guidance as to the most independent way a child could mount and ride, how sitting positions could be improved, etc.” Naomi’s support meant Octavia did not have to seek for riders to join the program for the first couple of years. “When we moved the program to Crossroads Farm in 1975, we could expand our clientele even further.”
In 1974 Naomi moved out of town, but continued on Mane Stream’s Board of Directors and attended some of the riding competitions. For Naomi, the best part of being involved with Mane Stream was witnessing the positive reactions from the riders. She remembers one rider had his own horse for a period of time, and another rider became a riding instructor and still rides and teaches fifty years later (Tracy Cole). “When Octavia and I discussed mutual memories about Somerset Hills Handicapped Riding Center (Mane Stream), she mentioned to me that both of these riders went on to compete internationally. Tracy is a judge for therapeutic riding shows and is a mentor to instructors in training.”
Octavia and Naomi have so many memories of those early years and one that stands out is when they had a public demonstration of the program that was the catalyst for Octavia to develop an instructor training class at her farm. Naomi remembers, “this occurred even before there was a North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (now PATH Intl.) certification program!”
Thank you, Naomi, for your key role in the creation of Mane Stream!
