Exceptional Equestrians breaks ground on new De Pere facility

DE PERE – On Monday, June 1, local nonprofit Exceptional Equestrians hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for a new 16,850 square foot facility in De Pere.

Exceptional Equestrians provides a wide range of equine programs designed to promote physical and mental health for disabled community members, and the groundbreaking marked an important milestone in expanding operations.
The event was attended by Exceptional Equestrians staff, leadership team members and the local community.

President and CEO of the De Pere Area Chamber of Commerce David Vander Bloomen delivered opening remarks, thanking the community for showing up and acknowledging several elected officials in attendance, including State Representative Joy Goeben, Hobart Village President Richard Heidel and Congressman Tony Wied’s office.

Heidel said that he has witnessed the positive effects Exceptional Equestrians has on its participants through his own time as a mentor.

“In my personal life, I’m a mentor in the Brown County Veterans Treatment Court, and I’ve seen firsthand the healing powers of a horse,” Heidel said. “These guys suffer from PTSD, depression, substance abuse and traumatic brain injury. The benefits they received from striking up a relationship with a horse are difficult to express, but you see it.”

“Exceptional Equestrians do an exceptional job,” Heidel continued. “I would like to congratulate the organization … They’re not only exceptional equestrians — they’re an exceptional member of the community.”

Exceptional Equestrians CEO Lisa Kafka also spoke, thanking the Village of Hobart and the sponsors who made the groundbreaking possible.

“At the heart of this endeavor are the families of Exceptional Equestrians, who rely on us to provide the quality of care that helps them to improve health, happiness and general well-being. They are why we’re here today,” Kafka said. “Every day, lives are changed through the hard work and determination that happens here.”

Kafka explained that Exceptional Equestrians is a medically-based program that provides individualized care to participants, with physicians creating personalized treatment plans to address physical, cognitive and sensory challenges.

She said the current facility “constrains us from providing services to everyone that needs them. More than 80 people are on our waiting list, and if you’re someone who struggles to perform the daily tasks you need to live, a waiting list is not what you need. This new facility is going to allow us to bring people off the waiting list, and hopefully eliminate it altogether.”

Dr. Molly Kafka explained the benefits of participating in Exceptional Equestrians and how it differs from traditional physical therapy.

“The movement of the horse actually simulates what we all feel when we’re walking through space,” Kafka said. “So, if you had someone with spina bifida who didn’t have feeling, it can provide them that neural motor feeling, so they can kind of transfer that into motor learning.”

Kafka added that Exceptional Equestrians benefits participants with a wide range of disabilities, and it can also have a positive impact on social, sensory and emotional learning.

“It’s also that social interaction, because [horses] are so receptive to humans,” Kafka said. “A lot of it is sensory — touching the horse, smelling the horse. It involves every sense.”

For more information about Exceptional Equestrians, visit exceptionalequestrains.org