Sheri grew up in Sussex County where all of her friends had horses. She and her friends would ride horses throughout the woods with no saddle or bridles. “Just holding onto the mane,” she recalls. Sheri chose to become a speech-language pathologist because, “The degree didn’t require math classes,” but also because when she was young, she enjoyed learning about Helen Keller and how she communicated.
At some point in high school, Sheri took an aptitude test, but didn’t remember the results. Sheri attended Rutgers University and knew she wanted to work with children but wasn’t interested in being a teacher. During a visit home, she was going through papers and came across a long-forgotten aptitude test she had taken in high school. The results provided a direction for Sheri, speech-language pathologist.
Sheri got involved with Somerset Hills Handicapped Riding Center (now Mane Stream) in the early 1990’s. She was working with a private client whose mom encouraged her to use a pony in her son’s session after he spoke a few sounds during a pony ride at a birthday party. She did some research and discovered Mane Stream’s founder, Octavia Brown’s program. Sheri began using one of Octavia’s horses during sessions with her client. The first two times that she put the client on the horse, the client fell asleep. When Sheri talked to Octavia about this, she suggested putting the client on a different horse that had a different type of movement. In the next session, the client was producing sounds that Sheri had never heard before. This led to more sounds, words, and sentences. For Sheri, figuring out how to use equine movement in treatment was most challenging. “There were not many therapists utilizing hippotherapy (using the movement of the horse to provide sensory and motor input) at the time. The only other speech-language pathologist was Ruth Dismuke-Blakely, MS/CCC-SLP in New Mexico. It was a lot of trial and error!”
Sheri was with Mane Stream for 8 years, from 1992-2000, providing speech-language pathology services to many clients, all while conducting therapy sessions outdoors (even in the winter and summer months) since the property did not have an indoor area. Building the current facility was a way to increase ring time to meet the needs of all the clients who wanted to include equine movement into their treatment plans. According to Sheri, “Everyone wanted to do it all!”
Over those 8 years, Sheri got to know many volunteers, instructors, therapists, and participants including Tracy Cole, and Mary Pat Gallagher. Although Sheri couldn’t remember her favorite horse to work with, she does remember Mo. Mo was a Gray Arabian that unfortunately did not work out for the program, but found a home with Sheri who adopted him and became her personal horse.
Sheri left Mane Stream in 2000 for maternity leave and two years later, founded Rocking Horse Rehab in West Orange, NJ. Her time at Mane Stream helped inspire Sheri to create Rocking Horse Rehab, which has been an Essex County staple for over 20 years. Without her experiences with Octavia and Karen Bocksel, former Mane Stream Executive Director, Sheri feels she would not be the person that she is today. Sheri credits Octavia and Karen for putting her on the path to such a rewarding career. It truly is a “gift.” She reflects, “Octavia and Karen are like family to me; I learned more from them than I did in college! Octavia’s drive and passion to help others continue to motivate and drive me today.”
Thank you for all that you have done for the industry and for being part of our history!
