At Fair Hill Therapeutic Riding Center, horses are more than animals — they’re teachers. Helping people build confidence, communication skills, and emotional connection, they offer lessons that traditional classrooms or therapy rooms often cannot.

“Your ability to connect with the horse for the rider affects them deeply in areas we can’t even measure,” said Vera Remes, a PATH International–certified therapeutic riding instructor and equine assisted learning specialist. “At Fair Hill, the most important component is the horse.”

Connection Comes First

Fair Hill’s one-hour lessons are structured to prioritize connection before skill. Executive Director Sally emphasizes relationship-building with the horse before teaching riding techniques.

“They could do stuff we really can’t do with words,” Remes said. “There are skills, and then there’s connection for our riders.”

During sessions, participants begin on the ground with breathing exercises and grooming, learning how their body language affects the horse.

“When you get an equine involved, they affect everyone in the area,” Remes explained. “There’s even research that shows their heartbeat can lower the heartbeats of people in the lesson. It’s called heart rate variability.”

Parents often notice improvements at home. “One little vignette,” Remes said, “is when a kid who’s never said a word tells their horse to ‘walk on.’ Your heart just swells.”

Beyond Traditional Riding

Therapeutic riding differs from standard instruction because the horse’s movement itself promotes healing.

“If someone’s on a horse, it approximates the movement of the human body walking,” Remes said. “You’ll often see improvement in gait, balance, and coordination.”

Fair Hill’s instructors ensure horses keep moving during lessons. “When they’re walking, you’re helping with balance and coordination — all the things you can’t really teach. The horse is doing that,” she said.

Serving a Wide Community

Fair Hill serves children with developmental, intellectual, and behavioral disabilities, adults, seniors, foster children, and veterans.

“We have a woman with a bad back,” Remes said. “The horse helps her because she can’t walk well. When she gets off, she feels better.”

The center also runs Stable Moments, a mentoring program for foster youth. “When you change a person’s attitude, other things come along with it,” Remes said. “It changes how they think of themselves and the people around them.”

Volunteers: The Heart of Fair Hill

Volunteers are essential to the program. Annual training, led by Remes and Nancy Van Wick, is set for Saturday, January 31, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Maplewood Farms in Waymart.

“We welcome people even with no training,” Remes said. “We’ll make them really good volunteers who can interact with professionals, participants, and families. You’ll never feel stranded.”

She adds with a laugh, “Nancy and I are like comedians. It will not be dry and academic.”

A Place of Belonging

For Remes, Fair Hill is more than therapy — it’s community.

“When I walk into the barn, I get that warm and fuzzy feeling,” she said. “It’s a place where people are just so accepting of whatever different abilities you might have. That’s what the horse does for you.”

More information on volunteering and programs is available at fairhill.farm.

As ICE increases its immigration arrests nationwide, local residents have formed rapid response groups in cities, villages, and towns across the country – including in the Mid-Hudson Valley region. Rapid response groups are typically networks that mobilize residents quickly if potential immigration enforcement activities are suspected and document the activities.

The Ulster Rapid Response Network is a community-based deportation defense group in Ulster County, mobilizing people and resources to defend immigrants in Ulster County from ICE. Radio Catskill’s Kimberly Izar spoke with Diana Méndez, a member of the Ulster Rapid Response Network, to learn more.

On a recent morning, a group of middle schoolers delivered a lesson on nutrition not through a worksheet or a lecture, but through a hook.

“Don’t skip meals. Don’t skip meals. You’ll get cranky…”

The song, written and performed by students at Liberty Middle School, is part of The STEAM Fund’s Real Food Songwriting Program — an arts-based initiative that invites students to write original music about nutrition, wellness, and making healthier food choices. The program has just wrapped up its latest run, and now the songs are reaching a wider audience, with a new student-created music video released every Monday.

“The Real Food Songwriting Program is just one of the vehicles we use to deliver our mission,” said Gary Siegel, co-founder of The STEAM Fund, speaking alongside his wife and partner Judy Siegel via Zoom. “Our actual mission is to support musicians, artists, and the venues where they share their gift.”

Using Music to Teach Real-World Skills

At its core, the program blends songwriting fundamentals — rhyme, rhythm, and collaboration — with lessons about real food versus processed food.

“It’s a songwriting program where we incorporate music to present the concepts of real food versus processed food,” Gary said. “And then help the students that are participating make good, healthy choices.”

The idea grew out of an earlier collaboration with the organization A Single Bite, which resulted in a song called Real Food Rules.

In early versions of the program, students worked together to write new verses to that song. Teaching artists guided brainstorming sessions, helping students turn nutrition concepts into lyrics that rhyme and fit a melody. The current version takes things a step further.

“The new program that we’re doing now is sort of a hybrid,” he said. “The kids write their own original song about a topic that has to do with real food versus processed food and making good, healthy choices.”

From Lennon Tributes to Local Classrooms

For the Siegels, the move into arts education was sparked by a moment far from Sullivan County.

“We were at a John Lennon tribute in New York City,” Judy recalled. “The executive artistic director got on stage and announced they were bringing the John Lennon Real Love Project into public schools.”

Gary turned to her and said, “That’s it.”

“That was back in 2019,” Judy said. “We should bring arts and education programs into schools, and that’s really how it started.”

Gary’s background as a music educator made the connection feel natural.

“This was a great vehicle to deliver our mission of supporting musicians, artists, and venues,” Judy said.

The Real Food Songwriting Program also responds to local needs.

“Food insecurity is obviously a big issue in Sullivan County,” Judy said. “So it was important to us to help facilitate a better way to make choices.”

Songs With a Message

Each student-written song carries a clear takeaway. One recent release, Don’t Skip Meals, was written by a group calling themselves The Superb Strawberries.

“So remember,” the song concludes, “eating three balanced meals a day will give you the energy you need to be happy, healthy, and focused.”

“The coolest thing about these songs is that every one of them has a message,” Gary said. “Every one of them is promoting good, healthy choices through music.”

Learning Beyond the Classroom

The entire process — presentation, writing, rehearsal, and recording — happens quickly. The impact, he says, is already extending beyond music class.

“They’re actually using these assets on the morning announcements,” Gary said. “To promote the concepts of real food versus processed food and making good, healthy choices.”

The schools also receive video and audio materials they can continue using, helping reinforce the lessons long after the recording session ends.

“It’s really part of prevention and education,” Gary said. “To make good, healthy choices.”

Just as important, he added, is what students learn about their own voices.

“It teaches these kids at a young age that they can use music as a tool for all sorts of things,” he said. “We sent a message out because we wrote a song.”

A proposed ICE facility in Chester, New York, has raised concerns among immigrant families and community advocates in the mid-Hudson Valley. If built, it would become Orange County’s second immigration detention center, joining the existing facility at the Orange County Jail.

Reverend Richard Witt, executive director of Rural and Migrant Ministries, said the proposal has heightened fear among immigrant families. “They're already living in great fear of separation from their parents, of their children, and having such a facility just adds to that environment of fear,” he explained.

Community members have voiced concerns at local board meetings, highlighting potential impacts on quality of life, local reputation, and the economy. “When they've built facilities like this in other communities… people don't think of Batavia anymore as a beautiful town; they think of it as a repressive detention facility,” Witt said.

The nonprofit has also seen a surge in volunteer efforts to support immigrant families. “We recently had a volunteer donate 50,000 meals that could be delivered to folks,” Witt noted, citing increased need amid fears of raids and reduced social services.

Local leaders, including Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus and Congressmember Pat Ryan, have expressed opposition to the facility, reflecting a broader community concern. Witt emphasized the importance of public engagement: “People need to let their legislators know their feelings… the overwhelming majority of the people don't want to be living in a community that's based on oppression and fear, and economic ruin.”