Local kids are learning life lessons \u2014 on the back of a horse!<\/p>\n
A new Pittsburgh police program is teaching kids more than just how to ride.<\/p>\n
A Pittsburgh police detective tells Channel 11 that, after she fell in love with the department\u2019s mounted unit, she wanted to teach inner-city kids how to ride horses.<\/p>\n
At Sunni Bell Stables, that dream is coming to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful to be a vessel,\u201d Detective Dorothea Leftwich said.<\/p>\n
As the first Black woman on Pittsburgh police\u2019s mounted unit, Leftwich is bringing her passion to nearly 20 kids in her Riding into the Future program.<\/p>\n
\u201cInner city kids, they see a lot of crime, so my goal with them is to get them to escape those types of scenarios, give them somewhere where they can be free children and play,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
And she wants them to find healing, as she did when she started riding.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was battling grief with my father, and I needed an outlet, and I didn\u2019t recognize that I could get it through an animal.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the kids, it\u2019s been a journey of their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite part is really watching other people get to learn about horses, the overall experience of riding and being in nature,\u201d said Bryanna Smith of Burgettstown.<\/p>\n
The program is hopefully coming back for even more kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really about these kids and that they\u2019ll have these memories and childhood experiences that really shapes us,\u201d Leftwich said.<\/p>\n
Sunni Bell Stables donated the space and horses for the program.<\/p>\n
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