Teens at Roswell Home Help Tame Wild Mustangs
By Leann Holt, Journal Staff Writer
Albuquerque Journal

ROSWELL— On the flat, unassuming plains of eastern New Mexico, the broken lives of dozens of abused and neglected teenagers are mended every year. Loving adults and a supportive community contribute most of the healing balm, but an unexpected agent plays an important role in the teen's rebirth: wild mustang horses.

"The horses help kids get the confidence to beat their fears," said Lee Kyser, director of the Roswell Assurance Home's Mustang Project.When the mustangs arrive at the Assurance Home, a 16-acre facility for severely abused and neglected teens, they are already part of a larger circle of healing.

The state of Colorado uses wild mustangs at its prison in Cañon City as part of its prisoner rehabilitation program. Prisoners there break the horses of their wild ways. When the horses complete the first stage of "gentling," they are then sent away to be trained as therapeutic riding horses for disabled children.

Each year, two or three of the mustangs end up at Assurance Home. Ron Malone, the home's executive director, said the horse training is one of the most effective rehabilitation programs for the teens.

In the past five years, the teens at the home have trained about 12 horses for disabled children across the nation, he said. As teens learn how to gradually transform a wild-eyed, 800-pound creature into a gentle, therapeutic animal, they learn a lot about themselves, said George Lewis, Assurance Home clinic director.

"These are frightened horses taken away from their herd, and these are frightened children," he said. "They have to learn to respect each other and work together. They use what they learn from the horses for a long time."

For the past 26 years, the Assurance Children's Home in Roswell has taken in some of the state's most mistreated 12- to 18-year-olds. Most of them are not candidates for the foster care system because they have been so damaged by the adults in their lives, said Malone, who has been with the home since its inception.

"These children are so traumatized, they wouldn't live in a family if you paid them," Malone said. "Some of the most horrible things you can imagine have happened to them."

Teens receive a variety of therapies and have counselors available to them around the clock. They attend Roswell schools and are involved in community activities.Most importantly, the teens have constant exposure to positive, loving adults, he said.

On a recent, chilly afternoon, the dusty horse arena at the end of the Assurance Home's driveway became a hub of activity when the kids came home from school. They ambled across the corral toward the horses, some eating ice cream and some laughing.

Jamie, a guarded, silent 16-year-old girl broke into a grin when she saw her favorite horse, Founder. She offered a heartfelt "hello" as her small hand put a piece of apple in his mouth. "I like to talk to the horses because they don't tell," she said hesitantly, staring at Founder. "That girl will talk when she's on a horse and never talk when she hits the ground," Kyser said of Jamie.

Danny, a reed-thin, 12-year-old boy with wild blond hair, had been glued to the back of a horse all day, Kyser said. The boy didn't attend school because he arrived at Assurance Home the night before. The child's face and arms were covered in scabs from an altercation the previous day. When Danny finally swung off the horse— which had bucked him a few times— he ran to Malone with a huge smile on his face to tell him about the wild ride.

"Pops," as the teens call Malone, listened attentively to the boy, calling him "son" and draping his arm around the young man's thin shoulder. "This is the first time in their lives there are adults around that aren't going to hurt them," Kyser said, teary even after eight years of working with teens at the home.

As the swirl of teens moved among the horses, Kyser, a former school counselor, math teacher and principal of Roswell High School, offered a constant stream of instruction. "Before you do anything else with a horse, you have to establish trust and communication," he said. "You have to reassure them you're not going to hurt them."

Then he draws the parallels. "These horses weren't in control of their lives," he said. "People made them come stay here. They can fight it, or they can let us love them. It's the same for you."

The Assurance Home houses 14 teens who stay from one to six years. Six more are sheltered in a short-term crisis care facility on the grounds. The home's $1 million annual budget is almost completely covered by private donors in 22 states. Malone said 85 percent of the residents successfully complete the program's personal and educational requirements.

"Most of these kids become good moms and dads," Malone said. "They bring their kids here to show them where they grew up and you can tell they're doing things differently."

Richard Taylor, a local businessman and president of the Assurance Home board of directors, said many Roswell residents realize the importance of the home and donate generously.

"Adults can be cruel," he said. "This provides the only family some of them have ever known. Ron (Malone) knows how to be a father to them."

C rystal, a confident, smiling 16-year-old who has been at the Assurance Home for more than a year, said she "thanks God" every morning for being there.

"I thought there was nothing in life when I came here— completely nothing," she said. "They taught me to think of what I could do with my life. They are going to help me go to college and be a teacher. I'm a whole new person."