Meet Lynn Brecht of Brecht Stables & Dustin’s Place

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lynn Brecht.

Lynn, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
While growing up, my grandparents raised and raced harness horses around Detroit, MI. I spent as much time in the summer with them as I could and learned a ton about horses and even more about myself. When I was just barely over 20 years old, I had my first son who was found to have Down Syndrome when he was born.

I went through postpartum depression after he was born and felt like I had doomed his life. I was a single mom at the point and had to pick myself up and move on. We moved to the Atlanta area in 2007 and I was working for corporate HR. My son, Dustin got very sick and was hospitalized for some time. I lost that HR job that had brought us down here and knew I had to figure something out.

Dustin and I both had our own horses at that time and I just decided to start giving his friends horseback riding lessons. Dustin was opted out of physical therapy in school because he rode so much and the parents of his friends at school started to hear about the other kids riding with Dustin and I.

I started “Brecht Stables & Dustin’s Place” in 2009 and never looked back. We now rent our own facility in Cumming, GA and I run most of it myself with some very amazing volunteers. I am now an Equine Specialist and offer Therapeutic Horseback Riding, Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning, Weekly Social Sessions for teens, free CBI trips for the school systems and onsite equine social/therapy sessions for special needs schools.

It is amazing to me to think, that what started as a way to feed my kid, is now a passion that I am living on a daily basis. I get to meet so many passionate parents who, at one point felt just like I did. We get to help brighten the day of some very cool kids and to bring lifelong friendships to them. My son now has a place to call his own where he is the big man on campus and has an opportunity to help people just like him. He has an opportunity to teach other people about horses and to show off his superman skills.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Lol! No. Running your own business teaches you more about yourself then you willing to know. Trust me, I am bad at the office stuff and am a bit of a control freak- so I have been told. It is very hard for me to stick to one thing and see it through. I love working on 50 things at one time. Being a single mom on top of running my own business is hard because I am so used to doing it all myself, but I just can’t. It’s hard to admit that to not only myself but others around me.

Brecht Stables & Dustin’s Place – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I think we are most known for offering therapeutic horseback riding. Also, just my rock star kids, Dustin and Timothy. Dustin, who this place is named after, is the first to walk up to you, shake your hand and invite you into the arena. Timothy, my little guy will be the first to hand you a brochure or try to sell you something. They are good marketing managers.

We have grown a great deal in the past few years and I need all the help I can get.

I received 2 different calls within a week of each other a while back. Both moms on the phone said something along the lines of “I was searching for equine therapy for my child and you were recommended by almost everyone I asked. You are pretty well known in the Autism/CP community”. To me, that is a huge compliment. It lets me know that we are doing a good job here and that we are respected in the special needs community. That’s the biggest honor I could get. To know that we are truly part of changing lives for the better is just amazing to me.

Also, last year we started Experiential Sleep away camps that we have been partnering with Aerie Experiences and New Beginnings Youth Ranch in TN. These are experiential sleep away camp for kids and adults with special needs. It is a clinically informed camp where therapists, special ed teachers, and nurses are your campers, direct staff. We work with parents and campers current therapist to achieve preset goals throughout the camp week. We have treatments teams each night to assess how the day went for the camper and also what we can do to improve the campers skills.

While the campers are learning archery, how to be a proper knight, taking hiking trips to find Big Foot and learning the stories of the great Native Americans on the rock formations and blowing blow darts at the wild African green mongeral or shooting a 3 man slingshot with their friends, we are adapting every activity so the campers can be successful, make lasting friendships and improve self-confidence.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
You know… there are so many small ones. I think that is how we live our word here. Everything is small steps- parents who tell me stories of their child’s other therapist commenting on the progress they see since that student has started with us.

To the students that cannot stand still for more than two minutes, but can run an entire hour session with us on horseback. To the students who refuse to talk or who studder but talk clear as day the second they get on the horse- lol, or we cant get a word in with once they sit in that saddle. To the students who are working on cross lateral movements who normally are one hand dominant no matter what you try to do with them.

They are all wonderful little moments that we are proud of.

Pricing:

• Therapeutic horseback riding hourly sessions- $45/50 a session
• Equine Assisted Psychotherapy- $125 per hourly session

Contact Info:

• Address: 6580 Riley Rd Cumming, GA 30028 (Mailing address)
  6737 Concord Rd Cumming, GA 30028 (Physical address)
• Website: http://www.brechtstables.org
• Phone: (678) 644-5243
• Email: lynn@brechtstables.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsplace1/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Brecht-Stables-Dustins-Place-Equine-Assisted-Therapy-97885330699/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrechtStables

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