The healing power of horses has inspired a local woman to open an animal therapy facility.
Jennifer Kindred-Bulbulia, 42, began her journey to the BK Foundation about 20 years ago.
At age 25 she was in a wheelchair, having suffered from muscular difficulties since she was 11.
“Riding horses had me walking again,” she said. “So I, myself, saw the extreme magic that medical doctors could not fix me, yet the animals could.”
She added, “I could see how they could read into every situation that was happening in my life and also with those around me.”
Kindred-Bulbulia was born and raised in California and, while she was working as a vet, began bringing people with mental disabilities into her practice to work with injured animals.
“They could feel like they were helping as well,” she said.
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she lost her business. She and her husband, Yusuf Bulbulia, moved to Erin in 2016 and she began working on the BK Foundation during her recovery.
Now the couple owns 52 acres of land and 30 animals they use in therapy sessions with people who have various disabilities and disorders, including autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, Down syndrome, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, eating disorders, addiction, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, fibromyalgia, polio and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The animals, including horses, rabbits, barn cats, pigmy goats, sheep, dogs, miniature horses and alpacas, are the backbone of the therapy program.
When a potential client approaches Kindred-Bulbulia, the first step is an evaluation of the client’s needs, issues, goals and what they want to gain from therapy.
“Then I take them out to the animals and where I’m different than some [others], you’ve heard of therapy dogs or therapy horses or therapeutic riding, I don’t do riding at all, everything is ground work and hands on, and what I do is I see who that person bonds with the most or who I think they’re going to work with best,” she said.
“I’ve had parents come out that say they only want their kids to be with the horses and yet their kids can’t stand the horses and they end up working better with the sheep and the goats.”
Kindred-Bulbulia said a big part of her role is helping parents and caregivers better understand the client’s needs.
“There’s a lot of work that has to be done with the caretakers and the parents as well as the actual client … and then they eventually understand when … we start working with them,” Kindred-Bulbulia said.
She added once clients are paired with their animal of choice they work on whatever they’re struggling with, like social anxiety or fear of being in public or fear of animals.
“You focus on those certain areas and you gain trust by slow processing of different things with the animal,” she said.
“If they’re scared to feed them, you do other things; you just interact together around the animal until they feel safe that the animal can touch them without hurting them.”
Kindred-Bulbulia is trained through the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH) International and is working on her PhD in psychology, so she understands clients’ needs.
“I can have the worst day of my life (then) give a session, and I feel better just to see what is happening with these people because I haven’t had a negative experience,” she said.
“Even if somebody, say with autism, had an episode or an anxiety attack, you have to know how to deal with that and make sure that the animals and the people both are safe at all times.”
Kindred-Bulbulia said she worked with a 9-year-old girl about a year ago who suffered a school injury that caused brain damage and paralysis.
“They thought she was brain dead, [but her] parents did not give up; they were able to use a combo of physio with her and … Equine Assisted Learning (EAL),” Kindred-Bulbulia said.
“Once she was able to get some movement up they started her in the EAL program and within six months she was fully walking and talking again – and she was actually helping the other kids with the program, instructing them what they could or could not do.
“So that alone had an amazing result right there.”
In other instances, she said children who haven’t previously talked start communicating and people who have muscular problems start brushing or feeding and working the animals.
In another specific case, Kindred-Bulbulia said she worked with a girl at the BK Foundation who was aggressive and had anger issues.
“It only took her three months to come around,” Kindred-Bulbulia said. “She is not aggressive to the animals at all anymore … social skills have improved greatly and she doesn’t have the violence that she had.”
The BK Foundation has only been taking on clients for a year and a half. Currently, Kindred-Bulbulia can only work with clients in fair weather, as the only working area is outdoors.
However, in the future she hopes to build a number of facilities.
She has spoken with the owner of Exhale Academy, a wellness centre in Erin, and once the BK Foundation is built out, there is the potential for a partnership.
“She wants to work with us in prescribing our therapy for her patients, as well as getting fully involved in eventually, hopefully, making it one huge wellness centre that integrates everything,” Kindred-Bulbulia said.
She has also spoken with a Guelph veterinarian from Park Avenue Veterinary Services who’s interested in partnering to allow Kindred-Bulbulia’s clients to work with injured animals at her practice.
“She said if we can get the funding and get it going she would even move her vet practice into the facility,” Kindred-Bulbulia said.
Now, the BK Foundation is working to be granted charity status so it can apply for various grants to progress the facility further.
Once the weather warms up, Kindred-Bulbulia will be continuing with her therapy sessions this spring. An individual session costs $125 and a group session for five people costs $250.
Kindred-Bulbulia said she hopes to eventually offer a scholarship program to clients from lower income homes who can’t get funding.
Those interested in donating to the BK Foundation, sponsoring an animal or arranging a therapy session can visit www.thebkfoundation.com or contact Kindred-Bulbulia at jennifer@thebkfoundation.com or 1-855-463-2524.
