“Learning with Horses”
A fun, week-long camp that partners horses in activities to help girls learn essential emotional and life skills to become confident, thriving young women.

Who: Girls only ages 11-15
Cost: $250
Time: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday
Dates:
June 7-11 (Fairburn location)
June 14- 18 (Vinings location)
June 21-25 (Fairburn location)
July 26-July 30 (Vinings location)
Registration: Call Jennifer Huffaker, Program Director at (678) 462-8905
Please bring a bag lunch and wear sneakers or boots.

“Healing with Horses”
An equine assisted psychotherapy camp partnering horses to help youth
Learn: communication, coping skills, impulse control, anger management, teamwork, and problem-solving. Camp is facilitated by a licensed therapist and an equine specialist with
advanced training with using horses in mental health.

Who: Girls and Boys, ages 11-15
Time: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday
Dates:
July 5-9 (Fairburn location,Girls only)
July 12-16 (Vinings location, Girls only)
July 19-23 (Vinings location, Boys only)
Registration & Cost: Call Jennifer Huffaker, Program Director (678) 462-8905 to register
Please bring a bag lunch and wear sneakers or boots

For more information on Flying Change Equine Therapy, please contact Kristin Hauch, Director of Marketing, Flying Change Equine Therapy, 404-502-0283 or visit www.flyingchange.org.

Christy, the horse, sustained only minor injuries when a Lexus driver rear-ended a carriage carrying four people in what police said was a drag-racing incident. But she was so traumatized in the accident that her owner told the AJC her career is over.

“I just don’t want to take a chance,” owner Cecil White said.

The driver was charged with following too closely, driving on a suspended license and violating the open container law. The driver and his three female passengers had to be hospitalized, and the horse ran off.

Christy was considered the “Rolls Royce” of the stable because of her calm demeanor and eagerness to work. White said he would keep her at the Fantasy Carriages barn on Tift Street. He invited the public to visit her.

The animal-rights group PETA called on Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed to ban horse-drawn carriages.

Craig Heydon, 72, and his 38-year-old son, Curtis Heydon, of Woodstock, Ga., had been found guilty last year in Justice Court of 21 counts of misdemeanor animal abuse, sentenced to nearly a year in jail and fines of more than $5,000 each. They were also ordered to forfeit the horses and pay restitution for their care.

The men appealed in District Court, where they were convicted again.

This time, the men were each found guilty of nine counts of animal cruelty to three different horses during their trip in 2008. The son was convicted an additional charge for abandoning a dying horse tied up without water on a trail.

The Heydons left their horse on the side of the trail after he refused to get up. (Ravalli Republic)

The case came to light when two women on horseback found “the emaciated horse lying in the sun, covered in biting insects and tied tight to nearby log,” according to the Ravalli Republic. They had the horse brought to a veterinary hospital for treatment.

Right from the beginning, Heydon said things happened they hadn’t expected, the Ravalli Republic reported:

The cot and tents they planned to sleep in were too bulky and banged into trees and rocks along the trail. The horse named Preacher would lie down for no good reason. Bay Baby – later named Able – kept falling.

And the trail over Pack Horse Pass was covered in snow.

Heydon said that was his oversight.

“I did not check with the wilderness service for what trails would be open and what ones would not be open,” he said.

The worst surprise came more than month into the trip when a small withers sore turned into something much bigger on the back of the elder Heydon’s riding horse he called Morgan.

That discovery marked the beginning of the end for the men’s trip.

In an effort to pull up their camp, the younger Heydon would attempt a 19-mile ride from deep in the Idaho wilderness to the Montana side. Along the way, he’d be forced to abandon a shoeless Bay Baby on the Big Creek Trail.

The discovery of the emaciated horse and the story of its rescue would end in the confiscation of the Heydons’ horses and the abuse charges being filed.

The elder Heydon remained adamant the men did nothing but care for the horses the best way they could.

“When we saw the withers sore, we knew we had problems that I had never seen before,” Heydon testified. “At this point, we’re not in a position to do much. We were way out in the middle of nowhere. We did everything we could.”