Equine Therapy: SRU student on equestrian team rides ‘Just because’

Slippery Rock University has a center on its campus dedicated to education, improving disabilities, volunteering, and competitions.

The Storm Harbor Equestrian Center, located right off of Harmony Road and across from the campus, is where all of these activities happen on a daily basis.

The Storm Harbor Equestrian Center is a place where horse lovers from the university and the community alike gather to share their interests.

Sabra Kozlina, a junior Middle Level Math Education major at SRU, is proud to be a part of such an involved place in the community, she said.

The Storm Harbor Equestrian Center is a non-profit organization that is part of Slippery Rock University. Their core focus is on equine-assisted activities for individuals with disabilities. Storm Harbor serves over 300 persons with disabilities every year, with the assistance of their volunteers, who put in a total of nearly 5000 hours of service.

SRU’s Equestrian Center is a Premier Center with NARHA, the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, which is the major organization in the United States for equine-assisted activities. All of Storm Harbor’s instructors are certified with the NARHA. They are currently the only center with premier status in western Pennsylvania.

"The community benefits greatly from this program. Our program serves the needs of people with disabilities in an equine assisted activity program or therapeutic riding program. The students get to work in a unique program that isn’t available on many college campuses," said Courtney Gramlich, Director of Storm Harbor Equestrian Center.

Gramlich said that a typical session with the children is approximately a half hour long. She said that the rider first enters the arena, mounts their horse and starts riding. The instructor will start the lesson with some exercises and then teach a riding skill which has some therapeutic benefit. Once the lesson is over the rider will walk a cool down lap on the horse and them dismount. A volunteer will then take the horse and un-tack it and put it away.

Kozlina frequently volunteers for these sessions as a part of her Equestrian Team duties.

The Equestrian Team at SRU is a co-ed group of approximately 25 members who show in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) circuit. The team competes against other region colleges and universities in hunter and jumper classes. No experience is necessary to join, and the team is open to any student who is currently enrolled at Slippery Rock University.

On November 7, Kozlina participated in one of these events and she placed third out of eight riders in the competition.

“It was really exciting since this was my first ever show and I got such a high ranking,” she said. “It’s not very often that a first-time rider gets third place or higher. Everyone was thrilled.”

To be eligible for competition, members are required to take 6 riding lessons every semester.

Kozlina has her final riding lesson of the semester at the indoor arena in the Equestrian Center.

“I really like my lessons since my coaches and my teammates are there because they love to ride horses…just because,” said Kozlina.

Sabra Kozlina shares her love for horses with each of the members on her team as well as her coach, the faculty, and members of the community.

Storm Harbor Equestrian Center has twelve horses. All of the horses were donated and are used for equine assisted activities and the Slippery Rock Equestrian Team.

Kozlina takes time to pet Smooch, a 19-year-old Quarter Horse housed at Storm Harbor.

“Abbey has to be my favorite horse. She’s the one that I was riding on today. She’s so calm and relaxed when I’m riding with her. That’s probably why she’s my favorite one,” Kozlina said of the horse.

Kozlina rode Abbey at her final lesson on November 18.

The purpose of the team is to promote hunt seat riding skills through English riding lessons and also to promote the growth of everyone as both an individual rider and as part of the team. The team feels that the emphasis on communication between a horse and its rider is the key to a successful experience.

Kozlina describes the classroom in the Equestrian Center, which is used for both college classes and general community classes.

According to the Equestrian Center web page, members are focused on learning about horsemanship, sharing their love of riding, and having fun as a team.

Construction of Storm Harbor Equestrian Center was made possible by donations from Ethel Carruth, Dr. Carolyn Carruth-Rizza, and Dr. Paul Rizza. The center was built in 2005 and is named after Dr. Carruth-Rizza's horse, "Storm Harbor."

Slippery Rock University's new art building officially opens at ribbon-cutting ceremony

Slippery Rock University's new $1.25-million Art Sculpture Building opened November 4 at a ribbon-cutting ceremony held in the building’s main lecture hall starting at 3:30 p.m. The building, which was planned to be built starting in the summer of 2009, now gives students a larger and more efficient facility for creating works in clay, metal, wood and other materials, says Thomas Como, SRU art department chair and professor.

“One of the things you see through the building are efforts to address green issues. So, we have a dormer up above that brings in natural light and we have energy-efficient fluorescent lights on a timer, so they go off after a few hours when not in use,” Como said.

Thomas Como discussed the features of the new Art Sculpture Building with those in attendance to the ribbon-cutting ceremony and the official opening of the building.

The educational benefits include high-tech Internet connections, a lecture hall and new computers with three-dimensional applications.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was “nontraditional” and was a surprise to everyone who attended the event, Como said. Como and his fellow speakers at the event used a welder’s torch to cut through a long metal pole.

Como and his fellow speakers, who included a senior art student at Slippery Rock University and President Robert Smith, helped hold the metal pole for the "ribbon-cutting" ceremony, along with Bill Williams, the Provost of Slippery Rock University.

President Robert Smith and Thomas Como pose for a photo opportunity at the official opening of SRU's new art building.

The 5,100-square foot facility, which is located across from the President's House, includes a woodworking shop, welding and casting room and a main lecture hall that doubles as a sculpture classroom, said Como. The woodworking shop includes mounted saws and sanders, while a blacksmith forge is located in the welding room. One of the best features if the building, Como said, is the loading dock used to bring large materials into the shop. Como now also has an office in the building.

President Robert Smith talked to the audience about the building's importance to both the students and the university alike.

“We also have something that is really exciting, which is air conditioning in this central space. It’s really nice when you’re casting metal at 2300 degrees in the summer to come in here for some climate control,” said Como of the building’s new features.

A Prometheus unit, which is connected to the Internet, allows professors to share images and connect to off-campus sites to further explain various art concepts. Three-dimension modeling on computers show the students images of sculptures to help them conceive and create new ideas. Students are then able to practice what they learn in the classroom environment as a result.