Animal-Assisted Therapy Class to
Aid People With Special Needs

An animal-assisted therapy class is forming for this summer, the first step in a Fond du Lac man’s ambitious plan to help people with special needs. The classes will start at 5:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Lakeside Park Petting Zoo on the south shore of Lake Winnebago. “If there is a request for more classes we will work the class schedules accordingly,” says Wiskow. There will be 2, 6 week sessions to kick off the program. First session starts right after Memorial Day Weekend.

 The petting zoo is a part of the children’s activities at Lakeside Park and the classes will take place after the petting zoo’s regular open hours. Organizer of the classes is Tim Wiskow, who has been operating the petting zoo for several years while he completes his training for working with special-needs and handicapped children and adults.

The classes are designed to provide unique and therapeutic experiences to people with physical, mental, social, emotional, or behavioral disabilities through farm animal assisted therapy, riding and driving therapy. Examples include: Low Self-Esteem do to Trauma or Family Disorders in Children and Adults, Stroke Victims, Domestically Abused Women and Men, Eating disorders, Down Syndrome, Mitochondrial Myopathy, Ataxia, Epilepsy, Developmental Delays, Attention Deficit Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Ecoli Meningitis, Hearing Loss, Scoliosis, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Mental Retardation, Head Injury Resulting in Brain Damage, Cognitive Delays/Disabilities, Tourette’s Syndrome, Depressive Disorder and more.

This animal therapy class will be the first of its kind in the country, according to Wiskow. After all the research and studying, we have not been able to find a program of its kind anywhere. 
He has seen, first hand, the benefits of riding programs. He has volunteered at riding therapy stables and has seen miraculous things during the classes he has taken through the North American Handicapped Riding Association.

He says, “I’ve seen people who have spoken their first words on horseback. I’ve seen the happiness on the faces of people in nursing homes when we bring an animal in to the home.” He has also seen people develop their trunk strength and has seen people who normally sit and stare turn their heads and smile when coming in contact with an animal.

When he attended a clinic this winter in Texas, he sought the opinions of others from around the country who were involved in riding and driving therapy programs. No one had ever heard of using other types of animals for therapy but they all encouraged him to give it a try.

He is hoping to get students from the psychology and nursing departments at Marian College and the University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac campus involved in helping with the classes. He says, “I’d like them to come to monitor the progress of the students and see how something like this can work and be a beneficial therapy program.”

“We could possibly be the role model for petting-zoo therapy in the U.S.” Wiskow would also like to encourage doctors and therapists and others in the medical field to become involved with his new program. This will help our studies and promote the growth of petting zoo animal assisted therapy programs.

The Participants will be matched up with the same animal for every class to monitor the growth and the therapy the animal has to offer. Animals will be matched according to the interest, ability and size of the participant. If the participants sign up for the 2nd session later in summer they will have a chance to work with the same animal if they chose or may pick a different animal for the next 6 week session.

The classes will begin with participants bringing the animal from a pen and walk it out to the area where the classes will begin.  Grooming therapy will be the 2nd step of this unique program.
Wiskow and his staff have purchased kits with bright-colored equipment. A participant will begin by picking out the purple brush and will be instructed to brush a given number of times. After working with colors, numbers and different grooming exercises, the animals will be placed back on their leashes and will walk around cones, and other obstacles incorporating different levels of activity and therapy as they continue. The sessions will also include games that are designed to make the participants feel comfortable around the animals.

There will be llamas, goats, calves, miniature horses, miniature donkeys and sheep. He says, “We’ll try to incorporate as many motor skills and other therapy skills in the sessions. Whisper Hill will ask what the participant’s specific needs are and focus as closely to the individuals needs to get the most therapy out of the therapy programs.  

In the beginning a child or adult may not participate because he or she is afraid of the animal but as the individual begins to relax they will develop trust and confidence in the animal. The trust and confidence that will enhance the participants to open up mentally, physically and to communicate with their animals providing the most unique therapeutic experiences.  

As a volunteer at the nearby Free Spirit Riders, a therapeutic riding program, he noticed some people are just afraid of the bigger animals. He feels these classes will be more suitable for the participants, for the animals will be smaller and not as intimidating, more their size.

Wiskow is also expanding to do one on one therapeutic riding also driving therapy classes on his farm.  The riding classes are available now, and classes are forming. The driving therapy will be sometime yet before he is ready to start this program. The funds to purchase the carts and harnesses he needs for the program just are not available yet.  He has it estimated just one cart with one set of harnesses for one horse will cost around $5,000. “When purchasing harnesses, carts and a horse it is just like buying an automobile.”

It’s all a part of his ambitious project to build a therapeutic riding center and stable. “My goal is to have a dude ranch camp; the ranch will focus on providing individuals the opportunity to reach their full potential through the personal growth and fulfillment with the aide of farm animals and horses. The people with special needs can come to the Whisper Hill facility for a day or a week, as a retreat and as a means of giving a break to the parents or caregiver.” He adds, “The freedom to move, that we take for granted, is something our handicapped and special-needs friends have to struggle with every day. Freedom to move to many areas with great ease will be the focus of my center.

“The difference between therapeutic driving and therapeutic riding is that riding requires some lower body strength where as driving does not. Therefore, a disabled person who has the upper body strength would be able to participate in driving. They are able to use their upper body for driving a horse and cart,” he explains.

For Wiskow it all began with a childhood dream of having a pony for his 5th birthday in 1976. His family lived on a farm and was promised a pony, but before he could get one his parents’ house burned to the ground in March of 1977. The family moved to the city of Fond du Lac where this young boys dreams where shattered when he realized he wasn’t getting his horse. Nineteen years later his parents bought land in the town of Forest where this young man now at the age of 26, finally got his horse.

He admits the Clydesdales weren’t the type of horses he originally wanted, but they were just what he needed to begin his move toward his dream of providing horse drawn wagon rides for people with special needs and residents of nursing homes. Encouraged by a friend, he started a nonprofit organization known as Whisper Hill Clydesdales Special Needs Foundation in July of 2004.
The foundation’s mission statement summarizes Wiskow’s goal: providing individuals the opportunity to reach their full potential through personal growth and fulfillment with the aide of farm animals and horses.

The foundation is currently seeking a grant writer or writers to obtain funds to further advance the project. In the meantime, it operates from donations and sponsorships and with money earned providing wagon rides, pony rides or petting zoos for private parties, birthday parties, dairy breakfasts, parades, festivals, company picnics, weddings and other events.

The estimated cost of Wiskow’s new project is $10,000.00, by the time all the games, cones, brushes, balls and everything that is needed to start and roll out the program is in place.
His animals are especially popular at nursing homes and he says he even has a special pair of shoes and socks for his miniature horses, which allows him to take them to some special events.
Currently, he has Clydesdales, Quarter Horses, ponies and small miniature horses, some beef calves, miniature donkeys, goats including fainting goats and pigmy goats, llamas and sheep. A highlight at the Lakeside Park petting zoo each year is the birth of new babies.

Since he started his venture in 2004, Wiskow has carried 4,500 special-needs and wheelchair-assisted riders as well as 2,500 people a year at the special Christmas holiday wagon rides in Lakeside Park.

Wiskow calls himself “a softie,” and credits his parents, Darrell and Arnette Wiskow, for their support and encouragement. He believes his interest in bringing cheer to people in nursing homes stemmed from his mother’s work at nursing homes, his role in the management of restaurants, department stores and from his involvement with the Adopt-a-Grandparent program when he was a student at Winnebago Lutheran Academy.

He has a marketing degree and worked as a 1st assistant manager at Walgreen’s before taking on this venture full time.

More information on the program is available at www.whisperhill.org. To register for the classes or learn more about them, call Wiskow at (920) 322-0636.

Whisper Hill Clydesdales Special Needs Foundation Featurs And Class Times