Mountain Views News, Pasadena Edition [Sierra Madre] Saturday, October 6, 2018

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Mountain View News Saturday, October 6, 2018 


ALTADENA STABLES...A BEAUTIFUL PLACE

WALKING SIERRA MADRE... The Social Side By Deanne Davis


Demonstration of Physical Therapy utilizing equine movement as a tool.

By Rebecca Wright

Next time you find yourself in the 
northwestern part of Altadena, you 
should stop in at Altadena Stables. 
The stables offer lessons for both 
English and Western riders with a 
focus on flatwork, so no jumping, 
reining, or barrel racing. There 
are shows occasionally, but the 
main focus is the pleasure and joy 
that comes from riding and from 
connecting with the horses. 

Perhaps the thing that makes 
Altadena Stables most special and 
unique is that Andrea Telleria-
Ruiz, the owner, and Janell Gruss, 
the operations manager, and the 
stables in general, partner with 
the program Leaps & Bounds to 
offer hippotherapy especially for 
children. Hippotherapy is a form 
of physical, occupational and 
speech therapy in which a therapist 
uses the characteristic movements 
of a horse to provide carefully 
graded motor and sensory input.

 Hippotherapy requires a 
licensed physical therapist and 
an occupational therapist. An 
advanced degree is required, 
usually a doctorate. And most 
places that offer hippotherapy 
work with insurance companies to 
make it low to no cost. 

 Leaps & Bounds works through 
USC to have access to clinical sites 
for physical therapy. During a 
session at the Altadena Stables, the 
child will be wearing a belt with 
handles on either side and will ride 
with a bareback pad instead of a 
saddle (a bareback pad is a fuzzy, 
fleece pad that looks like a saddle 
but has no stirrups). There will be a 
therapist on either side of the child 
to assist with balance if necessary, 
and a handler who leads the horse 
around throughout the lesson. The 
child has to do things like reach for 
rings or turn around on the horse. 
The goal is to help strengthen the 
abdominal muscles and improve 
balance and coordination. Andrea 
says that one little girl who does 
therapy at the stables could 
barely walk at all when she first 
started, and now she is able to get 
around with a walker. Janell also 
comments that a lot of kids start 
off as nonverbal but some of them 
start to open up as the sessions 
progress. 

 Andreaa. he current owner was 
first introduced to the stables when 
her daughter started taking lessons 
there. Her daughter’s trainer had 
moved to these stables and her 
family followed. She bought the 
stables in February of 2017. 

 Andrea says everything fell into 
place so quickly; she happened to 
get out of her car at the right time 
on the day that the owners were 
using a drone to take photos. They 
mentioned that the place would 
be going up for sale, and when 
Andrea went home she talked 
to her parents and was able to 
buy the place. She describes it as 
“so relaxing, a beautiful place to 
unplug…magical,” as well as saying 
that it is a “community investment,”. 
The previous owners wanted to 
sell the property to someone who 
would keep it public and make it 
a learning facility; someone who 
would appreciate the fact that there 
is, “lots of history and legacy to this 
place,”. 

 Andrea is both a nurse and 
a mother of a child with autism, 
so she understands better than 
most the need for therapy options 
outside of the traditional clinical 
office setting. She wanted to fill a 
local need and give parents like 
her an option that she did not have 
for her son when he was growing 
up. She says that when she started 
looking into partnering with Leaps 
& Bounds, everything just fell into 
place. 

 Currently Andrea’s horse, Callie, 
is the main horse used during 
the hippotherapy sessions, but 
there are two horses, including 
her daughter’s horse, Sparkle 
Marshmallow, that are also in 
the process of being certified. 
Leaps and Bounds has been 
operating at Altadena Stables 
since January of this year, but 
their official grand opening was 
September 15th. The goal was to 
introduce the community to the 
work that they have been doing 
by having a celebration, giving 
two demonstrations, and overall 
raising awareness. They want local 
hospitals and pediatricians to 
know about the services offered so 
that patients do not have to drive 
far away to get this kind of therapy. 

 To learn more, visit the Altadena 
Stables website at https://www.
altadenastables.com/. 

“Each year the Great Pumpkin rises out of the 
pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. 
He’s gotta pick this one. He’s got to. I don’t see how 
a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this 
one. You can look around and there’s not a sign of 
hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye 
can see.” Charles Schulz – Peanuts!

 “Fall Bucket List: bake pies, have a S’Mores 
campfire, visit a pumpkin patch, make leaf art, 
pick apples, make (and eat!) caramel apples, go 
trick or treating, drink hot apple cider, make fall 
cookies, carve a pumpkin, admire fall colors...
red, brown, yellow, orange...rejoice in the loveliest 
season... “Autumn is a second Spring, when every 
leaf is a flower.” Albert Camus

 “Vegetables are a must on any diet. I suggest 
carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie.”

 We love fall...all the fall stuff is out and it’s 
looked like Halloween at my house since before 
September. Why wait when you know it’s what you 
want to see all over the house. 

As we’ve already advocated vegetables on our fall 
diet, why not try these pumpkin cookies. They are 
easy to make, you can refrigerate the dough and 
make just a few at a time, they’re delicious, and 
you can justify eating them as they are loaded with 
good things...cranberries, oats, walnuts or pecans, 
raisins.

Giant Pumpkin Cookies

3-1/2 cups all purpose flour

2-1/3 cups old fashioned oats

1-3/4 tsp. baking soda

1-1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon (generous)

. tsp. nutmeg

. tsp. ground cloves

Combine all the above together in a big bowl. 
Now use your electric mixer to blend the following 
and then gradually add the flour mixture.

3-1/2 sticks butter, softened

1-3/4 cups white sugar

1-3/4 cups packed brown sugar

1 (15 oz) can Libby’s 100% pure pumpkin (not 
pumpkin pie mix)

2 large eggs

1-3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Stir in as many pecans, walnuts, dried cranberries, 
raisins as you’d like to have. 

 This dough is happier and makes better cookies 
for you if you chill it and then bake.

 Drop 1/4 cup dough onto greased baking 
sheet....

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 14 to 16 
minutes or until firm and lightly browned. Cool.... 
Enjoy!!

 Give some to anyone who looks like they need a 
cookie. This will be most of the people you know. 
Watch for scarecrows! They are appearing all over 
town.

 Just for fun, here’s a excerpt from one of the 
Emma Gainsworth Adventures:

 “Emma Gainsworth walked into a cobweb one 
cool October day on just walk into a cobweb, 
the cobweb reached out and embraced Emma, 
cocooned Emma, captured Emma with all the 
enthusiasm of the handsome young lover who 
had dumped her for a cocktail waitress with 
Dolly Parton curves and genuine blonde hair. As 
Emma had attended high school with Chantal, 
the cocktail waitress, some years before, she could 
attest to the real blonde hair as they always seemed 
to share the same gym class. Drat! She whispered, 
trying to move her head enough to see just exactly 
who...or what, had captured her.”

 “Scarecrows, corn in rows, pumpkins on the 
vine...leaves curl, wind swirls, fall is right on time.”

 My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

 Kindle readers, give yourself the gift of the 
Emma Gainsworth Adventures:

“Just Dessert: A Fall Fantasy” – “The Intergalactic 
Pumpkin Battle” – “The Lost Amulets”

 They’re on Amazon.com on my book page!

 

 Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd


Dr. Cassandra Sander-Holly, Founder Leaps & BoundDr. Gabrielle 
Chipot, Dr. Megan Kinter, Janell Gruss, and Andrea Telleria-Ruiz

“We are an institution educating the Southern California community for more than 35 years” 
Our school opens its doors to welcome students of all grade levels in our integral education system. 
Pre-K, Kindergarten, Elementary, Jr. High and High School 
The classes are taught in Spanish 
The academic year is from September - June 
9:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. (Saturdays only) 
Headquarters (Saturday Only): Foothill Oaks Academy 
822 Bradbourne Ave., Duarte, CA 91010 
Correspondence: P.O. Box 5332, Whittier, CA 90607-5332 
Email: laescuelaargentina@gmail.com 
. Registration forms are available for printing on our website at: www.leala.org. 
For more information call: 
(562) 548-9528 . (562) 324-1077 
Official titles recognized in Argentina and other countries who 
have treaties of educational reciprocity with Argentina 
(Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, México, Paraguay & Uruguay) 
Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com