“I love riding Max because … it has a good view and he’s really, really nice,” said Cora Spencer, a Sunrise Therapeutic Riding and Learning Centre rider.
“He can sense me.
“When I’m having a bad day … mommy said that he nuzzles me and gives me a kiss.”
Cora, 10, has been riding at Sunrise since 2013 and has forged a relationship with Max, a big bay horse that is one of the largest at the farm.
Their relationship and Cora’s bubbly personality inspired the Sunrise staff to put her name forward when The Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet approached the farm for a horse and rider pair to be featured on the “Collar of Duty” documentary produced by Summerhill Media Inc.
“I think that suddenly they just thought beyond the service dog scenario and started thinking about therapeutic horseback riding,” said Lynne O’Brien, managing director at Sunrise.
“So they found us and they contacted us and we were thrilled to be involved.”
The series looks at the bond between animal and human in therapy situations.
Cora’s dad, Andy Spencer, said it’s Max and Sunrise that are responsible for Cora’s growing confidence.
“That bond between Cora and Max, that physical touch and the fact that she comes here and sits on a horse as big as Max and she’s able to control him … (it’s) just a real sense of achievement,” he said.
“Because what we’re trying to instill in Cora is that she’s able to reach her own potential.”
Andy and his wife Daphne adopted Cora in New Brunswick when she was two and a half years old.
Her biological mother left Cora when she was three days old. Cora has been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Asperger syndrome and three learning disabilities. She also had a stoke in the womb.
“So she’s been through a lot,” Andy said.
“The Cora you see now is a million miles away from the Cora that we got when she was two and a half.”
From the age of two Cora has undergone intense behavioural therapy, during which she would repeat actions until she could complete the task without a meltdown.
Sometimes she’d have to complete her leaving ritual up to six times before she was able to go home with her dad.
“I found it so hard,” Andy said. “I’d leave there crying sometimes, but what you see now is the fruits of that intense behavioural therapy.”
The family moved to Guelph five years ago and now Cora is horseback riding at Sunrise unassisted. She walks and trots Max and Andy said she’d like to work towards cantering.
“That’s given Cora a huge amount of self confidence,” he said. “Just her … whole posture has changed.”
It is quite the feat for a girl who didn’t even want to ride on her dad’s back because of her fear of heights.
“Taking her to the park she wouldn’t climb up the ladders to go down the slide and she would stand there and watch other kids and then she’d fret about it and then she’d be hard on herself,” Andy said.
“So like all of us, to overcome fear and conquer it, again just elevates that level of self confidence.
“Her whole demeanor changes because she knows she’s coming to a place where she’s been successful.”
In the documentary the crew took Cora to the edge of the Elora Gorge.
“We were right at the top of the gorge looking down, so it was just a neat confirmation of how far she’s come,” Andy said.
“She’s actually sitting on the bars right around the top, whereas before she never would have dreamt of going anywhere like that.”
Cora said the whole experience was “high and awesome.”
Andy said when Cora was born nobody thought she would be able to understand humour, empathy, sympathy or be able walk or be toilet trained.
“And she’s defied all the odds,” he said.
Yet being in the documentary has not gone to Cora’s head. Andy said she’s happy to talk about it when asked, but she doesn’t really volunteer the information.
The filming took two full days. The first day started out at the Spencer home in Guelph and then moved to Sunrise. The second day began at the Elora Gorge and concluded with Cora riding at Sunrise.
For long days of filming Andy said Cora was a champion, coping with repeated line delivery and reshooting scenes, repetitive actions that she sometimes questions.
“She didn’t even ask ‘why are we doing this again,’ ” he said. “She just seemed to get it and each time it was a little different but she still managed to sort of remember the theme of what they wanted her to do and what they wanted her to say.”
The documentary aired early in February.
“Every day [Cora’s] a ray of sunshine,” Andy said.
“Everything’s a song. She’s so chirpy … she’s never negative.”
