A normal day in middle school doesn’t normally involve horses.

But once a week for the past two years, students in the Pathways program at Leonard J. Tyl Middle School and Palmer Academy in Montville have been making equine experiences a part of their curriculum,

On March 22, a group of about six students from Tyl Middle School gathered in a classroom at High Hopes Therapeutic Riding in Old Lyme before their lesson.

The students, part of the Pathways program for students with social and behavioral challenges, have been coming to High Hopes once a week since September, so they knew the drill.

They filed into an outdoor paddock, surrounded by grass, geese and a small pond. Some students giddily rolled barrels into the middle of the ring while others hung back.

“The nice thing about working with a horse is that it’s very much in the moment,” High Hopes’ executive director Kitty Stalsburg said, standing at a table near the classroom where the students had gathered. “You have to be present.”

High Hopes has been helping kids learn around horses since it was founded in 1974 to serve eight students with disabilities from a local elementary school.

The organization now serves more than 1,700 people a year, of all ages and abilities.

And starting last year, the students in the Pathways program at Tyl and the Palmer Academy have been making the trip to Old Lyme once a week. The facility also works with students from schools in New London, Waterford, East Lyme and several other districts.

Each student may have different goals, Stalsburg said.

“It’s amazing, the different ways they come,” she said.

High Hopes has other programs for students with physical disabilities, or those who need help developing social skills, like eye contact, personal hygiene or taking turns. Some of High Hopes' students have unstable home lives that don't foster the social and emotional development they'll need as they become adults, she said.

“It could be anything,” Stalsburg said.

Outside, in the paddock, the Tyl students had arranged barrels into an obstacle course for the horse of the day, Blessing. With help from instructor Lauren Fitzgerald, one boy lead the horse in a circle around the barrel. Then another circle.

“You’re going to make me dizzy,” she said, getting a small smile out of the boy.

Kate McCormick, who develops curricula for instructors at High Hopes, remembered a 17-year-old in the Pathways program who, like many High Hopes first-timers, was skeptical of the horses.

“Often they’re very shy, they’re angry, they’re upset,” she said.

After a few weeks of coming to High Hopes, McCormick said, she watched as the student got more comfortable with the animals and shared a special moment with one of them.

“He was speaking with the horse in sort of this whispered, personal conversation,” she said.

Horses are the perfect animal to bring out some people’s most human natures, McCormick said.

“Horses don’t put on a face,” she said. They tell you if you’re doing something right or wrong. They don’t lie.”

Dorothy Griffis, a special education teacher at Tyl, said she can often see results of the lessons at High Hopes in her classroom.

“A person might not be able to get along with other students, but (at High Hopes) they learn to adjust and adapt,” she said. “Trying something different, something out of the box ... is a means to do some healing.”

This corrects an earlier version that misidentified the needs of the Pathways students.

m.shanahan@theday.com