HIGH POINT, N.C. — Libbie Nemenz spends every moment she can around horses. She said she enjoys every minute of it, even sweeping the barn.

Libbie Nemenz volunteers just about every day at Horsepower Therapeutic Learning Center in High Point

She said equine therapy helps people of all ages with various needs

Nemenz said she felt the impact of equine therapy firsthand 

“I don't sweep my house with a broom, but I'll sweep the barn with a broom,” she said with a laugh and a broom in her hand. Then again, she’s quick to point out she’s rarely home.

“I’m always here,” she said, while cleaning the barn at the nonprofit Horsepower Therapeutic Learning Center in High Point.

“I've always loved horses,” she said.

Nemenz volunteers her time most every weekday. She teaches a few classes a day, several times a week, helping people of various ages and needs receive equine therapy.

"It was an answer to a lifetime of love for horses,” she said.

She first started volunteering at Horsepower about a decade ago.

"As I retired and got older and stuff, I decided that this was my place to be,” she said.

She helps people like Dylan Tew, now 35, who suffered a brain injury at the age of two-and-a-half. His mother, Phyllis Tew, said he’s received equine therapy for about 20 years.

"The best thing is he loves to come. It's just a social fun activity. He doesn't know that is helpful, helping him physically and helping him get stronger. His core. It’s just fun for him,” Phyllis Tew said.

Nemenz said she’s seen the therapy make a difference in her students by improving everything from their core to their confidence.

“Some of them started out, they couldn't even sit up straight. And, you know, through working with their sessions and everything, then months down the road, they're sitting up straight,” she said. 

“Some of these children are in wheelchairs, so they're experiencing movement that they've never experienced before,” Nemenz said.

“To watch their faces light up and the laughs and smiles that you get out of them is just, like I said, it to me, it's a life changing experience,” she said.

Nemenz said she knows firsthand how helpful equine therapy can be.

“I was having some issues and I was given the opportunity to take an equine therapy session, and I connected with the horse in my heart and in my soul and it changed my life,” she said.

Now, she’s helping to change lives through her volunteer work.

“She’s just so consistent and just obviously loves what she does, loves the horses and loves being out here,” Phyllis Tew said.

“Without the volunteers, this program would not exist. So it's just wonderful that she's out here,” she added.

Nemenz gets something out of it too.

“It just fills me with joy and happiness and peace,” she said.