CABOT — For many families, a horse is not just a majestic animal. For many like the Drake family, a horse is a way for family members with disabilities and injuries to gain or regain some of their coordination, balance and strength.
Jim Drake’s daughter, Mary, was in a devastating car accident in 2009. She sustained a traumatic brain injury, leaving her with very little physical control of her body.
“One of the ways to help her with therapy is with the horse,” Jim Drake said. “We’ve been coming out to Beyond Boundaries for probably six years now.”
Drake said it has been amazing to see the improvements in his daughter over the past six years.
“She went from being scared of the horse and really having no trunk control or head control to now, when she’s able to sit on the horse and maneuver the turns and keep her balance and keep her head up,” he said. “It’s been incredible.”
Beyond Boundaries is a nonprofit equine-based therapy center that uses horses as a tool to help increase specific motor, sensory, speech and social responses. The center is at 2195 Peyton Street in Ward, and Drake serves as its director of development.
On Saturday, Beyond Boundaries will host its 10th annual Mane Event, a fundraiser that helps keep the center running.
In the past, the event has taken place in Little Rock, but this year, it will be at the Cabot National Guard Armory, 300 Commerce Park Drive.
“It’s going to be great,” said Leslie Seward, director of events and marketing for Beyond Boundaries. “It’s the first time the Mane Event will be in Cabot. They really wanted to get it closer to the farm and bring it back home.”
The Mane Event is the biggest fundraiser for Beyond Boundaries each year. In addition to the cost of the facility, taking care of the horses used in therapy takes quite a bit of money.
“The bigger horses that we use actually need chiropractic care,” Seward said. “I had no idea until I started working here.”
The event, which will begin at 6:30 p.m., will feature the work of local artists and other items in live and silent auctions. Seward said some of the big-ticket items include fishing trips — both bow fishing and trout fishing — and a trip to Costa Rica.
Seward said the community comes together to help raise funds for the event. There will be 20 volunteers from the Little Rock Air Force Base helping out, as well as some rodeo pageant girls.
“I’m in the process of working with a guy who is making a fire pit out of horseshoes,” Seward said. “And, of course, all of our major sponsors will have their tables up front.”
The Larry Weathers Band will provide entertainment for the evening.
Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at the door. Businesses and other parties interested in sponsorships can contact Seward at lseward131@gmail.com or (501) 749-6175.
The Mane Event, although it is the organization’s biggest fundraiser, is not the only opportunity to give to Beyond Boundaries, Drake said.
“We are going to use the Mane Event as the catapult into a Giving Tuesday campaign,” he said.
Giving Tuesday — which will take place Nov. 29 — is a global day of giving, spurred on by social media, that focuses on holiday and end-of-year giving.
“We have a commitment already from Pinnacle Structures in Cabot to coincide with the money raised on Giving Tuesday,” Drake said. “As soon as we get to a certain level, Will Feland (Pinnacle Structures president) is going to donate all of the materials to build a barn. Then we’re going to build a barn in one day. How about that? A good old-fashioned barn-raising.”
Drake said that over the 14 years Beyond Boundaries has been in operation, the horses have not had a barn. They live in the pasture behind the therapy center.
“Having a barn is just going to be awesome,” he said. “We are just elated.”
For more information on Beyond Boundaries, visit www.beyondboundariesar.org.