Of horses and a promise
Handicapped High Riders Club to buy Riding High Farm in Allentown
By jane meggitt
Correspondent

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Barbara Isaac, Allentown, the founder of the Handicapped High Riders Club, hugs her pony Calvin Klein at her Riding High Farm.

Allentown resident Barbara Isaac made a promise to her father shortly before he died. She told him she would create a therapeutic riding program, and that would be her legacy.

Her father had always encouraged her to make something of her life and to follow her dreams.

In 1979, Isaac founded the Handicapped High Riders Club at her Riding High Farm, and now, with the planned acquisition of the farm by the HHRC Board of Directors, the continuance of the program is assured.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Isaac said she was "born with the pony gene," although she had no exposure to horses until she was in high school.

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Barbara Issac offers Babe a treat at her Riding High Farm in Allentown.

She and a high school friend took riding lessons at Tee Vans Riding Academy at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. At the time, Isaac recalled, a bridle path ran all the way from Prospect Park to Coney Island.

After high school, Isaac married and she and her husband, Hanen, adopted three children, Joseph, Paul and Sue Ann. They moved to New Jersey in the mid-1950s, and eventually built a house in Colonia in Woodbridge Township.

Isaac worked as a bookkeeper for a law firm, but wanted to have a business of her own. Her young son, Paul, was interested in horses, and one day she saw a classified ad: "Partners Wanted — Horse Ranch — Trail Riding — Snack Bar."

She answered the ad and a career was born.

Isaac admitted she knew next to nothing about horses when she started running Silver Saddle Ranch in North Branch. She persuaded the previous owner to stay on as the stable manager while she ran the business. Meanwhile, she read everything she could about horse care, nutrition and saddlery, and accompanied the vet and blacksmith on their rounds.

The property had beautiful trails and originally horses were rented for rides. After an unfortunate incident, however, in which a group that had rented horses whipped them, Isaac stopped hiring them out and instead started a riding club in which qualified members paid a fee for regular riding privileges.

Planting the seed

The riding club grew to 300 members, who could use the facilities for birthday parties and other events. At one birthday party, a family brought in a clown to entertain who would plant one of the seeds for what would become the Handicapped High Riders Club.

The woman doing the clowning was so impressed with Isaac’s horses and the atmosphere of the farm that she asked if she could bring some developmentally disabled children she worked with to the farm to ride. Isaac agreed and was moved by the kids’ response to the horses.

The North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) had been founded in 1969, and in 1975, as Isaac’s interest was being piqued, riding was just beginning to be recognized as a valuable form of therapy for the handicapped. She read an article in the magazine Horseman’s Yankee Pedlar about Octavia Brown, founder of the Somerset Hills Riding Club. An early proponent of therapeutic riding, Brown became Isaac’s mentor, and together they founded Horseback Riding for the Handicapped (HRH), the umbrella organization for therapeutic riding in New Jersey.

About that time, Isaac and her husband realized they would have to find another farm if they were to realize their dream. It took them one and a half years of looking, until a colleague at the Princeton law firm where Isaac was working showed her an ad for a farm in Allentown.

It was just what they needed — 26 stalls, an indoor ring, three paddocks and a nice Cape Cod on 12.85 acres. In August 1978 they moved to Riding High Farm, and by 1979 a board of directors had been formed for the Handicapped High Riders Club. In 1980 the club received IRS accreditation as a charitable organization.

Community involvement is key

For over 20 years, Isaac and her family have been involved in the community. She has served as treasurer for both NARHA and the Special Olympics, as well as acting as a state Equine Advisory Board delegate for HRH and a trustee of the Horse Park of New Jersey, Upper Freehold.

She also has been active with the Allentown-Upper Freehold Drug Alliance. Over 50 individuals required to complete community service have fulfilled their obligations at the farm. The Isaacs also have had several foster children staying with them over the years, and are especially close to their foster son, Alan, whom they consider part of the family.

Every year on the first Sunday of June (June 3 this year), they hold their Family and Friends Day, welcoming all for a day of fun and an opportunity to learn about the program with demonstrations, pony and carriage rides, music, games and their famous chance auction for children and adults.

A personal crisis recently showed Isaac and her husband, Hanen, how devoted the HHRC "extended family" is to them and the program. Several months ago, Hanen was diagnosed with a serious illness and spent 27 days recuperating in a Philadelphia hospital. Barbara was at his bedside the entire time, but worried about the farm, horses, students and program she had supervised on a daily basis for two decades.

Tears welled in her eyes as she related the outpouring support of family, friends, instructors and volunteers. She knows the HHRC will continue to thrive. She plans to remain as executive director, and she and Hanen, who just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, will move into an apartment on the property.

Handicapped High Riders is an NARHA Premier Accredited Center, giving 50 private lessons per week to people with disabilities, as well as group lessons to students from Eden Programs of Princeton; Gateway, which is based in Carteret; and Indian Fields and Cambridge elementary schools in South Brunswick.

Project Freedom, a group home in Robbinsville, also sends clients for lessons. HHRC also offers beginner lessons for the able-bodied, driving classes for the disabled, hippotherapy, and an inclusive summer camp for both disabled and able-bodied children. Hippotherapy is a specialized form of physical therapy which uses the horse as a therapy tool to address movement disorders associated with various neurological and neuromuscular conditions such as cerebral palsy, cerebral vascular accident, multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury.

The farm is open seven days a week year-round. There are currently eight part-time instructors and 12 horses.

HHRC does not receive state funding and relies on fund-raising to cover many of its expenses. Events include an annual benefit carriage driving show, sponsored by the Garden State Horse and Carriage Society, which is scheduled for Oct. 14 at the Horse Park; the Cycling Tour from Cream Ridge Winery, to be held Oct. 6; the Night at the Races on March 30; and a golf tournament.

HHRC also needs volunteers for its regularly scheduled concession stand work at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, which donates part of the proceeds to charities. A capital campaign is also under way for purchase of the farm by the board of directors.

For more information about the HHRC program, volunteering or contributions, call (609) 259-3884.