Esperanza Academy and Windrush

Like bacon and eggs, or vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, little girls and horses naturally go together. At least that’s how the middle schoolers at Esperanza Academy in Lawrence feel about the horses they work with at Windrush Farm.speranza is a school for disadvantaged girls that is in session for most of the year, from 7:30 each morning until 6:30 in the evening.

The school is free to those chosen by lottery to attend. They get three meals a day, uniforms, rigorous academics… and the chance to fall in love with a pony like Bearito or Tucker or Judge.

During the school year, ten Esperanza students come to Windrush on Thursday afternoons to groom, tack and ride their equine best friends. Last year a group of girls from the school came to the summer program for a week. They are still talking about this transforming immersion experience that they had from 9a.m. to 4p.m. for five days in August. In fact, when Esperanza published its first newspaper in November, the following articles told everyone just what the Windrush program was like.

Horseback Riding is Great!

By Katherine Javier and Penelope Sanchez

(Penelope) Last August, five Esperanza girls got to go to Windrush Farm in Boxford, the place where we also ride and learn about horse care during the school year. Windrush Farm is called Windrush Farm Therapeutic Equitation because, in addition to lots of able-bodied students like us, they help handicapped children and adults to improve in body and spirit through learning to ride. It is an awesome place and the instructors are great!

This summer Aleyne, Emily, Penelope, Adrianna Silvestre and I went from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for five whole days. These days were tiring but also fun and joyful! The horse I had was called Mister. He is a gray horse with a friendly personality. One of the things we learned was how to be in the ready position. If you are not in the ready position, you could fall off. We learned how to be steady and how to walk, trot and canter on a horse. Another thing that I learned was how to groom the horse with brushes and a thing called a curry comb, and how to clean out a horse’s hooves the right way. One of the best times of day was lunch, where we ate a lunch we brought from home and had a chance to rest and socialize while we ate.

(Katherine) I thought the summer program was very fun, too. My horse’s name was Clifford. He is a chestnut which means sort of reddish brown. He could get a little bit grumpy but once I got to know him I got this special love for him. I got very used to him so when it was time to go, I felt bad, but of course I was not gonna be able to stay there forever.

We rode the horses twice a day. Each of us had a volunteer to help us with grooming and tacking and cleaning out stalls. I loved my volunteer. The last day we played all kinds of games and I Won almost all of them because I had such a great horse. I love that horse!