Sunrise Theraputic Riding and Learning Center instructor Cathi Illerbrun, 55, recently received the Andrea Gillies Award for Outstanding CanTRA (Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association) Instructor.
She said the nomination alone was “humbling” and “amazing.”
“I thought ‘well, that was nice to be nominated, I’m never going to win’ kind of deal because there’s people from all across Canada. ‘What everybody does is amazing so there’ll be somebody else,’” Illerbrun said.
“I was teaching on a Monday and (managing director) Lynne (O’Brien) came out and she was standing at the doorway, she’s like jumping up and down and she’s like ‘you won, you won’ and so yeah it was very exciting for everybody.”
CanTRA “is a registered charity that promotes challenge, achievement and empowerment for children and adults with disabilities through the use of the horse,” the organization’s website states. “CanTRA also provides education and instructor certification.”
Each year CanTRA gives out one outstanding instructor award. This year Illerbrun was the recipient.
She has been teaching intermediate therapeutic riding lessons since 2009.
“Over the years, Cathi has worked with many riders of all ages and abilities in our therapeutic lessons as well as in our integrated camps and our driving program,” the Sunrise nomination letter stated.
“She is a ceaselessly thoughtful and dynamic instructor, in constant motion to adjust her methods of teaching to fit the needs of each rider.”
Illerbrun teaches about 32 students over a four-day week.
“If there’s a will there’s a way to do it and that’s why … when I’m working with my riders if that doesn’t work then I want to find a way that they can understand,” she explained. “Some of the parents really laugh at me upstairs because they’re going ‘what is she doing now’ because I move my body and I dramatically show them the way that I want them to do it.
“And the kids go ‘oh that’s what you want’ you know but I can have fun with it and just be inventive.”
The parents of Illerbrun’s riders agree.
“Cathi took the time to think about how to get concepts across to the girls, and worked on a chalk board and with various types of inexpensive items to mark a course or get a movement or idea across to them,” Deb Heard, a rider’s parent, wrote in her nomination later.
“She has asked myself and other parents questions about our girls, which has helped her understand them and think of new and innovative ways to get points or movements across to them.”
However, Illerbrun’s road to her outstanding instructor award hasn’t been easy and she hasn’t always been a horseback rider.
When Illerbrun was in high school she experienced a traumatic brain injury as a result of a weight lifting accident.
“It went undiagnosed because they didn’t recognize head injuries back then,” she said. “So my whole life changed after that.”
Though she had no physical limitations Illerbrun said that she had many ups and downs in the time immediately following the accident and “basically slept for a year after.” She then dropped out of high school.
“After that I went into the workforce,” she said. “I didn’t finish high school because back then they didn’t know how to support people with head injuries.
“They didn’t know what to do with you, how you learned or anything like that.”
It wasn’t until 17 years later, after she’d given birth to two boys and was a stay-at-home mom that she learned the full extent of her head trauma and went to McMaster hospital for a brain injury evaluation.
“I couldn’t figure out why I was an A student and then I was struggling with math and dates and things like that so it was really hard in high school,” Illerbrun said. “So they said … ‘it would have taken you four years to get one year in with support’ so back then I had nothing because they didn’t recognize it and it was nobody’s fault, it was just the way it was.”
Her doctor at McMaster encouraged her to try new things.
“He says ‘is there a dream of yours that you … want to try, something new?” Illerbrun explained.
She chose horseback riding. Once she re-entered the workforce she began working at a horse breeding facility, a vet’s office and for a small donkey breeding facility. That’s where Sunrise founder Ann Caine offered her a job at the riding centre saying she liked the way Illerbrun worked with the animals.
“So a couple months later I got the nerve to come over and apply for a job here,” Illerbrun said.
Shortly after beginning work as a stable assistant Illerbrun became a certified instructor, but not without uncertainty.
“It was always hard for me to tell people about my head injury because … I didn’t want to be judged,” she said. “Sometimes people judge you and before I didn’t get the support … but now I’m not like that anymore, it’s okay to be yourself.
“I found that out here, which is awesome.”
Now Illerbrun is an intermediate CanTRA instructor and is the main driving instructor at Sunrise.
“Cathi’s commitment to her students is matched by a natural thirst for knowledge,” her nomination letter reads. “With her riders at the forefront of everything she does, Cathi continually strives to improve her skills and our programs to the maximum benefit of our riders.”
Illerbrun is also working towards becoming an Equine Canada instructor because one of her riders is hoping to advance her riding skills.
“After that you can do walk, trot, canter and then you can do basic jumping and stuff like that too,” Illerbrun explained.
“So I decided that I didn’t want to give up my student so I thought I’m going to go back and be a better instructor.”
Underlying all of Illerbrun’s efforts is her brain injury experience. A struggle that helps her create a unique connection with her students.
“I understand the frustration about learning a different way, or it takes a little longer,” she said. “It’s okay. It’s okay to be yourself and we’ll figure this out and … sometimes it might take a little longer but we’ll work together at it.”
Illerbrun had also seen the impact of horses on people who have a disability before she began at Sunrise because one of her son’s has Asperger syndrome.
“He wasn’t in a therapeutic program because he wanted to ride western and they don’t do western … I didn’t know he had Asperger’s when he was little,” she said. “I just knew that he just loved horses and he was fixated on horses and he just rode all the time.”
Having this experience with her son helps her connect with her students.
“Everybody said I’m creative or think outside the box, how to be more in tune to how they’re feeling that day,” she said.
Her riders’ parents agree.
“Cathi is full of energy and enthusiasm,” said parent Mike Hamp.
“The encouragement and variety (of) each lesson is much appreciated.”
It was Illerbrun who introduced singing into the therapeutic riding lessons.
“I had a couple students one time that weren’t even talking and then all of a sudden I started singing and then they started singing and the mom goes, ‘What?’,” Illerbrun said. “It’s amazing how being on the horses and motivating them a different way can bring them out of their shells.”
Illerbrun said she loves teaching at Sunrise.
“If more teachers were like Cathi, the education world would be a much better place for individuals with disabilities,” Heard said.
