Barbara Isaac, one of the country’s pioneers in therapeutic riding, died Nov. 14 in Ormond Beach, Fla., at the age of 91.
The founder, with her husband, Hanen, in 1979 of the Handicapped High Riders Club which became Riding High Farm in Allentown, N.J., she was part of a group interested in learning about therapeutic riding instruction who gathered around Octavia Brown’s dining room table in the late 1970s.
Octavia, founder of the Somerset Hills Handicapped Riding Center (now Mane Stream in Oldwick) told those who came to her Bedminster, N.J., home everything she knew about the subject, in the days before NARHA (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) was formed, and its successor, PATH International, wasn’t even a dream.
As Octavia recalled, Barbara “made it clear that she had been seeking something like this to put her heart into–and she did.”
Barbara devoted herself to Riding High’s clients and its growth. She also contributed to the development of therapeutic riding in the state and the country.
“Since more and more people in New Jersey were learning to be instructors and wanting to create programs, Barb suggested we create a state interest group and that was the birth in the early 1980s of HRH (Health and Recreation through Horses) of N.J., which served as a network and information resource for those providing equine assisted services,” Octavia stated.
Barbara Isaac, second from right, when Health and Recreation through Horses of N.J. received the Dominic Romano Community Service Award at Centenary University in 2013. With her, from left, were Mary Alice Goss, Joan Schneider, Gaye Collins, Octavia Brown and Liz Doskotz. (Photo courtesy Octavia Brown)
“We were the first state group under NARHA, and things just went on from there. Way more politically savvy than I was then, she contacted the New Jersey Horse Council and the New Jersey Equine Advisory Board for HRH to become a member. That opened the door to making the entire New Jersey horse industry aware of what we were up to, and they embraced us from then on,” said Octavia.
She recounted that Barbara “got herself on the board of the New Jersey Special Olympics and talked them into funding an annual statewide Special Olympics equestrian competition, as far as I know the first in the nation as a free-standing horse show.
“When the national Special Olympics were drafting guidelines and rules for national competition, the two of us went to Washington D.C. to meet Eunice Shriver (the sister of Jack and Bobby Kennedy) and persuaded her to offer horse show ribbons as well as the standard three Special Olympics medals, pointing out that this would be a horse show.
“She told us that having gone to Foxcroft (a private equestrian-oriented girls’ school), she perfectly understood why ribbons were important. That is in effect to this day. She also agreed that men and women, boys and girls of all ages should compete together, only divided by their equestrian skill level.”
Barbara went on to train future instructors at Riding High Farm, which became a PATH premier accredited program.
“It’s safe to say that while I may have introduced Equine Assisted Services to New Jersey,” continued Octavia, “it was Barb who made it respected and valuable to the movers and shakers in the New Jersey equine industry. She once said to me, `Sometimes, I feel like your pupil and sometimes like your mother.’ She taught me so much about politics, running an organization and influencing people, sometimes against their so-called better judgment, to follow her lead. Thanks to her dynamic leadership, we achieved so much in and for New Jersey.”
Barbara was a mentor to many, including Mary Alice Goss, founder of Special People United to Ride.
“She was very dynamic, very loving and very giving,” said Mary Alice, who did her practice teaching with Barbara before starting SPUR.
“She supported all of us, she helped anybody and everybody who showed an interest. If you came up to Barbara and said, `I’m thinking about starting a program,’ she started supporting you.”
Robyn Sturz, the executive director of Riding High, noted that Barbara was one of those people who made sure something got done, once she had an idea.
“Everyone jumped on the train with her for whatever the ride was going to be. She definitely was a strong-willed person and an icon in the industry. It rollar-coastered into what therapeutic riding is today.”
One of her interests was working with at-risk youth, which Riding High continues to do today, along with therapeutic and veterans’ programs, serving 95 people each week.
Barbara stayed involved with Riding High for decades. Even after retiring in 2005, she made it a part of her life for another 10 years, until she moved to Florida.
Visitation will be Nov. 27 6-8 p.m. and Nov. 28 9:30-10:30 a.m. followed by her funeral at Huber-Moore Funeral Home, Bordentown, N.J. Interment will follow at the Brig. Gen. William C. Coyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 350 Provinceline Rd., Wrightstown, N.J. Donations in her memory may be made to Riding High Farm, 145 County Road 526, Allentown, N.J