CHAMPS HEART INC

The inspiration for Champs Heart started when the founder Larry Cudmore found out in 2016, just 2 days before Christmas, that he had a very aggressive form of cancer.
Two days after Christmas he was on his way to the Hunstman Center in Utah to start treatments. Next door at Primary Childrens Hospital was a young lady that was also being treated for a rare aggressive form on cancer. Her name was Emily and she was from Ashton Idaho. The family contacted Larry and asked if he could go visit their daughter and possibly give her some healing and comforting words since he had been a pastor for 40 years until he retired due to his cancer. The young lady he visited was named Emily. She was only about 17 years old. Larry shared his love of horses with her and gave her a photo of his horse who was named Champ. Larry promised Emily when they were both well and done with treatments that they would either take a sleigh ride or a buggy ride depending on the season. And Champs would be pulling the buggy or sleigh. Emily shared that she had a desire to work with disabled children, and had volunteered for Special Olympic events. Sadly, Emily did not survive her cancer, but Larry did. He wondered why he lived when a young life was taken. I believe Emily was what pushed Larry to start Champs. You will notice each of the volunteers wear "Emily's Angels" on their shirts in her honor since she inspired Larry to move forward on an idea he may have had but was not inspired to move forward until he met her.
So Champs is not considered therapy since we do not have licensed therapist on site. Instead, Larry wanted Champs to be a place where special needs kids could just come and be kids and bond with a horse, and find a reason to smile. The children can bond with a horse who they can tell anything to, and the horse will not share their secrets or thoughts. And the horse will not laugh, or make fun, or bully, or ask why they are different. I have seen a child's confidence change just by being able to "be in charge" for a change. They can learn how to rein a horse and "be in charge." Their days consist of therapy, medical appointment, counseling, etc where they are always being told to work harder, or practice more, etc. But at Champs they can just have fun and be a kid.
Our program is for those with special needs, but when we have enough volunteers and horses to keep everyone safe, we also invite the family to come and ride with their child. We have special saddles we use for those who do not have core strength or good balance, such as those with cerebral palsy. We also have a lift that we can use to life a child above a horse and then lower them onto the saddle. It gives those in a wheel chair the ability to still ride. We have a volunteer who leads the horse, and then a volunteer who walks at the side of the child to keep them safe. We currently have 300 kids enrolled in our program and about 50 on the wait list wanting to participate when a spot comes open.
As for the selection of horses, all but 3 of our horses have been donated. When we get a new horse, we take them through an 8 week training period before we ever put a child on them. We have experienced volunteers ride and work with the horse until we are confident that they will be safe for the kids.
Champs does not charge the families for any of our services. We run completely on donations and grants. Larry believed that these families had enough having a special needs child and did not want another financial burden on their family. If a child wants to participate, they complete an application. The application is reviewed to ensure the child has a medically diagnosed special need. A special need can be ADHD, cerebral palsy, OCD, autism, depression, sexual abuse, down syndrome, etc. All are included. If we have a spot available that will work for the family, the child is accepted into the program. If there is no spot at their available time they are added to the wait list until a spot comes open. We have older participants who have been in the program for quite a while, but we are currently accepting kids between the ages of 2-20. We were having a lot of larger participants apply and we had to implement some weight limits on our horses to keep them safe the healthy. But of course we do make exceptions. Larry will basically help whoever he can help but we must be able to have volunteers who can safely life and assist a rider when needed.