It’s a ramp to reach a saddle, but for Kristen Riley and other members of her special-needs riding group, it’s a stairway to heaven.
Kristen, 7, will be able to mount her horse with less difficulty than it takes to climb aboard from the ground, thanks to her brother Brendan’s senior project at South Whidbey High School.
“I wanted to help out my sister’s program,” said Brendan, 17, of Langley, who, with help from his structural-engineer father and several master builders from the Central Whidbey Lions Club, produced a custom-made ramp to ease the burden of mounting up.
“It turned out really nice,” Brendan Riley said. “It looks really good.”
The ramp is 22 feet long and 4 feet wide, with a handrail along the outer side.
It inclines 2.5 feet in 16 feet, and levels off into a mounting platform 6 feet long. Three moveable platforms are available for those helping the others to mount.
Riley said the ramp is made of cedar and a plywood composite material, and is designed to be mobile, so it can be transported to various arenas on the island used by the riding group.
“My sister hasn’t tried it out yet,” he said. “But a person in a wheelchair said it worked good.”
The ramp was constructed this past week at Jerry Lloyd’s Rein Shadow Ridge Ranch in Greenbank. Lloyd is a prominent member of the Whidbey Island Chapter of Backcountry Horsemen of Washington, and assists specialized riding programs at his covered arena.
Riley said the ramp was constructed from more than $1,000 worth of material donated by South Whidbey building firms, including ProBuild in Clinton, Hanson’s Building Supply in Bayview, and Ace Hardware and Frontier Lumber in Freeland.
He said design work on the ramp was donated by his father’s firm, Quantum Consulting Engineers, and by Aaron Coates of Outline Studios in Langley.
The ramp was built by Riley and about 10 members of the Central Whidbey Lions Club, and ramrodded by Bill Jones. They knocked out most of the project in two days.
Riley said there was more than enough donated material for the project, and the job went off without a hitch.
His sister is a member of Equestrian Crossings (EqX), a nonprofit therapeutic riding group formed to bring special-needs children and adults together with horses. It offers programs at Valley View Farm in Langley, Rein Shadow Ridge Ranch in Greenbank and at Hastie Lake Arena in Oak Harbor.
The program also offers regular instruction in recreational and competitive sport riding, vaulting and harness driving for people of all ages and abilities, said Donna Riley, Brendan’s mother, who is an EqX board member and its membership chairwoman.
Brendan Riley said he doesn’t ride horses himself, but the other members of his family do. He prefers tennis, snowboarding and skimboarding.
After graduating from high school next year, he plans to attend college, perhaps Central Washington University in Ellensburg.
As for his senior project, he pronounced it a big success.
“It went smoothly,” Riley said. “No problems at all.”
For information about EqX, visit www.equestriancrossings.com, e-mail info@ equestriancrossings.com or call 320-1573.
