- November 1, 2024
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Sarasota Manatee Association for Riding Therapy is returning to its roots but with a twist.
Under new leadership, the nonprofit has merged with Hooves with HEART. (Horse Education and Riding Therapy), another East County nonprofit, to serve more individuals with disabilities by providing therapeutic riding lessons.
The resulting nonprofit, now known as SMART with Heart, is headquartered at SMART’s 23 acres on County Road 675.
Ilee Finocchiaro, who served as a volunteer and instructor at SMART for eight-and-a-half years as well as a volunteer at Hooves with HEART. for 11 months, has been named SMART with Heart’s new executive director.
Danielle Curtis, the vice president of the SMART with Heart board, said the board decided to let go of SMART’s previous executive director, Mark Hiser, to return to the nonprofit's mission and why it was created.
"(The board) wanted the sole focus of this facility to be about the therapeutic benefits our equines can deliver to those in need in our community," Curtis said. "Hiring Ilee was the step in that direction and merging with a like-minded program like Hooves with HEART was the next one."
The merger was finalized Sept. 1. Finocchiaro said the resulting nonprofit is providing therapy riding lessons to about 40 riders with special needs per week.
Curtis said the merger helped Hooves with HEART at a time when it was looking for a bigger home to serve more riders.
Hooves with HEART has been headquartered on a donated property in Myakka City but now will move to SMART's home at 4640 C.R. 675 in East County.
Curtis said her initial reaction to the potential of merging the nonprofits was terrifying because Hooves with HEART was the “little train that kind of could” and was growing to serve the community the best it could.
She had never visited other equine therapeutic centers in the area, but after visiting SMART, she was hooked.
“I was kind of spellbound by this beautiful facility,” Curtis said of SMART’s grounds. “All I saw was the potential of what that place could be, and because Ilee was working with us over at Hooves and I knew what her heart was, I just needed to sit down with the current board and see if they were willing to merge in a way that Hooves riders would feel as at home (at SMART with Heart) as they’ve always felt with us at Hooves.”
SMART with Heart has five certified therapeutic riding instructors and two equine specialists in mental health and learning.
Finocchiaro walked around the arena at SMART with Heart and gave instruction to Daniel Barros, a 13-year-old rider with cerebral palsy, during his lesson Oct. 30.
She said coming back to SMART felt like returning home. Finocchiaro, a hairstylist and stay-at-home mom over the years, never imagined she would become the executive director of the nonprofit she adored.
“I can’t do this by myself,” Finocchiaro said. “I was a hairstylist who loved horses, and I don’t know everything, but if I surround myself with people who have the passion, belief and knowledge, we can all do this together.”
“Being back home again, I want to be able to build that family feel again with our volunteers and with our participants,” she said.
Finocchiaro said there is something happening every week at SMART with Heart, whether it’s hosting a homeschool field trip, hosting community organizations like Selah Freedom, giving individual lessons, or working with veterans.
But the nonprofit is struggling financially because of leadership turnover and hurricane damages.
SMART with Heart is 100% volunteer-run.
“Our community has a huge heart to want to see this succeed,” Curtis said. “We have such giving people who are willing to step up to the plate and do what needs to be done.”
Finocchiaro said SMART with Heart is depending on community donations so it can care for the nonprofit’s most important partners — the horses.
“We can’t overwork them," she said. "We need to cycle them around because their mental wellbeing is just as important as humans’,” she said. “They definitely come first.”
Finocchiaro said it costs approximately $10,000 per month to care for the nonprofit’s nine horses and five mini horses.
Besides needing money to care for the horses, the nonprofit is looking for donations for facility repairs, including a new roof on two of its buildings, a new concrete barn and a new water system.
Flanzer Trust matches every donation to SMART with Heart.
SMART with Heart also is looking for volunteers, especially to allow it to expand its services and programming.
“Every day, I’m like, ‘OK, how are we going to teach these kids today?’ We’re short handed, and in order for us to continue doing our mission, we need the volunteers and the support to be able to continue putting on safe therapeutic riding lessons,” Finocchiaro said.
Finocchiaro and Curtis hope to begin a program for first responders and another for individuals who might not have a medical diagnosis but need therapy to address stress, anxiety and more. Finocchario also would like to start a program for those struggling with substance abuse as well as a program for cancer survivors.
