Duck ‘N Stables in San Benito uses animals to improve mental health

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SAN BENITO — Recent perpetual downpours had left the grounds at Duck ‘N Stables too saturated for any horse riding on Wednesday afternoon.

But there was still plenty of work to be done.

Those who work at the stables were reminded with the near constant clucking of chickens that roamed the property freely, the nickering from the horses, and the occasional low moo from a cow.

Honey, a 9-year-old female quarter horse, was led out of one of the stables by Melody Cantu, an animal-assisted facilitator from Los Fresnos. They were closely followed by 11-year-old Kassidy Salazar of San Benito.

Cantu led Honey to a covered area just outside the main office doors and wrapped a rope around a short pole. Honey stood statuesque, calm but attentive, with her big eyes studying her surroundings and shaking her head enthusiastically every now and then.

With Cantu’s guidance, Salazar gently brushed Honey’s golden brown fur from head to hooves. When every inch had been brushed, Cantu helped the young girl clean the mud from Honey’s hooves.

The work can be difficult, and the thick humidity didn’t make things any easier, but Salazar’s mood was enthusiastic throughout the process.

It was all part of a program offered by A Stable Learning, LLC, which operates out of Duck ‘N Stables. They offer equal-facilitated activities and interventions for at-risk individuals including children, young adults, and adults, as well as veterans who may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and their families.

“We develop interventions,” Raul Garcia, owner and director, said. “We use the animals to teach life skills to coping skills to help the individuals with some of the daily life challenges that may be interpreted by others as challenging. We don’t intend to take the place of a clinical setting, but we try to be another support system that augments the benefits of clinical settings, school and everything.”

Garcia, who also teaches statistics and psychology at a local high school, said that the program aims to help children who may have behavioral issues or who may come from single parent homes, as well as individuals who have been diagnosed with behavioral health and other disabilities.

“Here we develop each intervention for that specific need of the individual, and then we track the progress,” Garcia said. “We write progress notes for every session to be able to tell whether what we’re doing is working and whether we’re moving towards achieving the personal goals of the client or those stakeholders.”

He said that A Stable Learning is partnered with Rio Grande State Center and Tropical Texas Behavioral Health, who will refer clients who they believe could benefit from working with the animals.

Clients are able to choose which animals they want to work with, including nine horses, seven cows, two bulls, and numerous chickens and ducks.

“So they normally pick the horse that they find the connection with every time they come out here,” Pamela Garrett, owner and director, said. “So if they’re having a bad day, it may be one particular horse. If they’ve had a really good day, it may be another horse. Just like them, the horses have good days, they have bad days. They all have different personalities.”

Garrett, who grew up taking care of horses, said that she found the work to be therapeutic. She said that they began offering horse riding lessons a few years ago and began to see the positive effects it had on clients.

“A lot of the clients that we have that are taking riding lessons have some form of ADHD or ADD or autism,” Garrett said. “So they come out here, and it’s just a different mode for them to be in. They learn to take care of them. They learn the safety skills from the ground up. We teach them so we just don’t put them on horseback and let them go. We teach them basic horsemanship.”

Garrett, who was an elementary school teacher and has an animal assisted specialist certification for therapy animals, said that since she already had the animals available, she decided to offer their services to help those who could benefit from the animal engagement.

“It’s just perfect because I already have all the animals, we have the barn, so why not share it since the mental health of the RGV is not what it should be, especially after COVID,” she said.

At the front barn near the entrance of the property, 15-year-old Maryssa Torres of Raymondville was accompanied by another facilitator named Jodie Stryker as they prepared to feed and water some of the animals.

They were greeted by a horse named Miss Prim, who is described as “the queen of the barn.”

“Maryssa, what are her ears telling us?” Stryker asked.

“She’s interested,” Torres said. “Her ears are all over the place.”

“And what happens if her ears are pinned back?” Stryker continued.

“Then she’s not sure about y’all,” Torres said. ‘But she’s curious.”

She added scoops of food to the buckets in each of the stalls. Afterwards, Torres grabbed handfuls of hay from a bale and began adding it to the feed. She added hay to the stall of a mule named Winston, who grabbed a mouthful.

Prim began to grunt, impatiently.

“It’s OK. We’re coming Prim,” Stryker said.

“Just hearing the horses makes me really excited because I just love animals, and one goal that I have is to be a veterinarian when I’m older,” Torres said during a short break. “It’s just making me happy and making me feel more alive and more productive.”

She said that despite the heat, she enjoys cleaning the stalls and being able to work with the animals.

“It’s worth it,” she said. “It makes me have something to do, like, not just be stuck at home doing nothing, or just being with anxiety at home or depression at home. This makes me feel like I actually have something to do. It makes me feel happy. It makes me feel comfortable.”

For more information about A Stable Learning can call (956)341-3436, visit their Facebook page or go to astablelearning.com.

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