coolest thing I've seen in a while

[scroot]

Last week I had the opportunity to visit T.R.O.T. (thereputic riding of Tucson). TROT teaches people with disabilities how to ride horses. While I was there they were working with children from the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind.

All but one of the kids started out in a wheelchair. The horses help develop trunk muscles. Also there were various tasks to do while riding such as getting mail out of a mail box and some other hand eye stuff.

My favorite part was this one young man who was just so excited that he kept laughing and whooping. After mounting he lay down on his horse and hugged him around the neck and laughed and laughed. The insturctor told him he need to sit up straight and stop laughing or he would have to get off the horse. Man did he hop to. It helped his school teachers to understand how much instruction he could really take if properly motivated.

Best thing was the row of empty wheelchairs. I realized so many spend all day there or transfered to this or that. But on a horse! So cool. There was total and complete satisfaction not to mention great therapy in the lives of the children I saw.

A group at my church has decided to pay for the boarding of a horse for a year.

Just wanted to share this great program with others. Maybe there is one like it in your community.

 

[tarkus]

Thats fantastic ! It's a real joy to see people trying and doing new things in the process of rehab.

Thanks for the heart felt story.

Goodspeed,
Alan

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for sharing. That sounds really cool.

Some of the kids in my DD's dance class do hippotherapy (I guess the official name for the horseback riding therapy). We had looked into it, but the only place had a long waiting list plus it was an hour away.
Here's an intersting link to the American Hippotherapy Association.

 

[3kidsmommy]

Chandler started the therapuetic riding a few months ago, but could not get over his irrational fear of the horse. He would do that high-pitched screech and scare the poor horses. We went 6 times before we all finally decided to give up on it. A lot of the people in our autism support group do the ridiing and they love it! It is a very neat program.

 

[tarkus]

Thanks for sharing. That sounds really cool.

Some of the kids in my DD's dance class do hippotherapy (I guess the official name for the horseback riding therapy). We had looked into it, but the only place had a long waiting list plus it was an hour away.
Here's an intersting link to the American Hippotherapy Association.

SueM,

Thanks, great link. I'm going turn a friend of mines little boy onto this.

Awsome,
Alan

 

[Lezah]

It is a fabulous program for the kids/adults who enjoy the program. When I was younger and taking riding lessons, the owner of the barn I rode at allowed some of us horse crazy girls to help out on Sundays with their remedial riding program (what they called it then). It was amazing to see the smiling faces of those kids. I still remember one young man (he was about 17) and was mostly non verbal, but not when he was aboard my favourite horse, Bert. He "talked" to him, hugged him, and interacted with him the whole time he was in the arena. His name was Robert and he thought that it was hilarious that the horse's name was so much like his and giggled everytime we asked Bert to walk or trot as we walked or jogged along beside him. There was one of us who led the horse and then one of us on either side of the rider to make sure they stayed aboard! It was one of the most rewarding experiences of our young lives. Most of the kids did it for the free ride that we got at the end of the afternoon, but I just loved seeing the kids beam and the freedom they gained by riding and as you said the empty wheelchairs outside the arena! They just came to life in there every Sunday. There is a great program here in my new hometown and I was about to start to volunteer there when I got pregnant with my DS and then couldn't because it was a high-risk pregnancy. Then he was a severe asthmatic so there went that idea for a while and now there is no way because of my arthritis, but I think about it when I go to the barn to drop off my niece at her lessons!! Thanks for reminding me of it all again!!

 

[bavaria]

I agree - a wonderful program! I was a volunteer horse handler for my local association and highly recommend it. Sadly, they often don't have enough horse handlers as parents like to help out but don't always have experience with horses and end up being support guides (our program had one horse handler and two guides for every rider)

A young woman down the road from me is blind and has ridden horses for years, including jumping (she is guided remotely by her trainer)