TEWKSBURY — Horse riding isn’t typically the first thing that comes to mind when considering special needs treatment, but for 18-year-old Abigail Finnegan, who suffers from bipolar disorder, nothing else compares.
Sitting atop a calm, friendly steed inside the new arena at Strongwater Farm on Sunday, not even her mask could contain her beaming smile.
“She’s doing a lot better now, this calms her down,” said Finnegan’s grandfather Cyril Chandler, who, along with his wife Mary, drives her down from Nashua, N.H., every Sunday for therapeutic sessions. “It’s very enjoyable to see.”
Finnegan is one of dozens currently enrolled at the equestrian therapy center in Tewksbury, which for the past 22 years has provided treatment for children and adults who suffer from a host of illnesses and disabilities, ranging from anxiety and depression to PTSD and multiple sclerosis.
Yet like so many other nonprofits across the state, the crippling blow dealt by the coronavirus pandemic has left Strongwater Farm in a fight for survival, as cuts to group programming coupled with a shortage of incoming funds has left them uncertain about how long they’ll be able to stay afloat.
“We have no idea if we’re going to be able to host another fundraiser. Our program grants may be compromised if we can’t continue certain programs. And we know that a lot of other nonprofits are struggling and that everybody’s looking for the same dollar,” said Executive Director Maria Antonioni. “I have my own anxiety dealing with all this, because I want it to keep going.”
To the outside eye, it can be hard to believe that working with horses can be so remedial; even Antonioni said she was a bit of a skeptic when she first interviewed for her position two and a half years ago.
That is until one of the recruiters brought her to a live-session and she watched a nonverbal girl struggling with debilitating pain become completely at ease after getting onto a horse. Since then, her passion for her work has grown exponentially.
“People with spinal injuries for instance have a lot of pain relief just from therapeutic riding alone,” Antonioni said. “But horses are magical; they read your expressions, they read your thoughts, they read your feelings. And that was the voodoo that I didn’t understand before I came here.”
Strongwater Farm was founded in 1998, a year after a group of local residents came up with the idea of repurposing a section of unused land at Tewksbury Hospital to hold a series of small equestrian events for the hospital’s disabled patients.
According to Antonioni, the horses were such a big hit that within a few years they were able to raise enough money to renovate and repurpose a historic dairy barn on the property into a stable, and began operating as a therapeutic riding center shortly thereafter.
In the time since, Strongwater Farm was certified by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International — an internationally recognized oversight board — in 2004, secured a 99-year lease for the property in 2008 and last month finished construction of a $2 million indoor riding center, which they broke ground on at the beginning of the year.
The new center was created so that Strongwater could continue its programming throughout the winter, but when COVID-19 arrived in the spring Antonioni said they were forced to shut business down, as well as install a top-of-the-line air filtration system to keep the new center feasible.
While Antonioni said the new filtration system means they can safely hold sessions indoors again, their inability to host groups of riders means they’re not certain how they’ll be able to sustain themselves.
“We used to hold morning programs for schools with children with disabilities, as well as at-risk youth at alternative high schools, but all of our school programs stopped,” Antonioni said. “Right now we’re just taking it one day at a time.”
Even state Rep. Dave Robertson is trying to help Strongwater Farm, though he said the amount of remedies Beacon Hill can currently provide are limited.
“One of the big things that we’re doing now is just getting folks in the community aware of their great mission and the ways they can support them, whether it be financially or through volunteerism or whatever,” Robertson said. “It’s tough knowing that they’re struggling. I don’t know how long COVID-19 will be around, but it’s temporary, so we need to make sure that we continue to support them so they’re around thereafter.”
