The special-needs teacher ambles into the classroom to meet another new student. She's walked to the ramp where the boy waits countless times before. Each time, she's there to make a fresh connection with someone for whom connections don't always come easily.
The teacher is a 20-year-old quarter horse named Scarlet. The student is a 5-year-old boy, Paul, who has autism. He's my son.
Paul, who loves hugs and kisses, is learning to read and can count to 100. He adores animals, especially horses. Any time he goes to a petting zoo, he lights up just being near them.
But Paul also compulsively flaps his hands or wiggles his fingers. Standing still is tough for him; he'd rather jump in place. He speaks at a 3-year-old's level and often repeats a question rather than answer it. He has poor fine-motor skills. He watches other children but doesn't join them. When he does, it's with roughhousing that's often too rough — he doesn't know another way to play. Paul doesn't have friends.
For me, the worry nearly every mother experiences about her child being accepted and loved is magnified tenfold. In searching for something Paul could feel a part of, I discovered a group that brings horses and people with disabilities together. I found hope in SIRE, a nonprofit that operates three therapeutic equestrian centers for children and adults in greater Houston.
For the past seven years, a red-dirt corral at Sienna Stables near Missouri City has served as Scarlet's classroom. The 15-hands-tall chestnut is one of dozens of horses that work with SIRE, which offers riding instruction to both the mentally and physically disabled.
"She really does care about her riders. She knows who's on her back," says Joelle Devlin, who has been with SIRE for 18 years. "She turns her ears back to check on her rider. … She stops if her rider gets off balance."
Balance is an important element of therapeutic riding, or hippotherapy. Devlin explains that the side-to-side motion of a horse's gait promotes body awareness and addresses vestibular, or inner ear, issues. She touts the improved muscle tone and concentration that come with therapeutic riding. She describes how perfect alignment and posture on horseback stimulate the entire central nervous system, which in turn promotes "motor planning" in the brain. In my son's autistic brain.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Therapeutic riding for autism
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Riding school provides therapy for people with disabilities
Riding school provides therapy for people with disabilitiesBy Amy Erickson
Megan Hanno's ultimate goal is to walk again.
Special Troopers Adaptive Riding School (S.T.A.R.S.) Inc. is helping the Le Mars woman move toward that goal.
The nonprofit organization provides therapeutic techniques on horseback for people of all ages, from 18 months on, with physical, cognitive or emotional disabilities.
"In most cases just about any diagnosis qualifies," said Jessie Christopherson, S.T.A.R.S. executive director. "There's a whole lot of folks out there who could be utilizing the service and don't know they qualify."Megan, 22, suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident five years ago. Since then she has had to relearn everything from swallowing to talking to walking.
Horseback riding through S.T.A.R.S. helps strengthen Megan's core muscles, the ones that help people walk, sit upright and balance, Christopherson said.
The horse's movement replicates the motion that people's pelvis and hips make when the walk on two feet, she said.
Monday afternoon Megan's mom Paula Hanno, pushed her wheelchair up a ramp to a mounting block in the S.T.A.R.S. indoor arena for Megan's weekly therapy session.
Megan said riding helps her balance.
"My abs (were) really sore," after her session the week before, she said.
"There's no way to cheat on a horse," Christopherson said. "She has to retrain her body to use muscles her brain has forgotten how to use."
As volunteer and part-time instructor, Holly Tucker, lead Brownie and Megan around the arena, Megan's constant battle was to remain upright with her chin down.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Horse Therapy in the Middle East
Autistic kids connect with innovative therapyTherapy techniques involving the use of animals in the classroom are yielding results at the Sabahat Akşıray Autistic Children’s Education Center in İzmir’s Menemen district.
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Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Therapeutic equestrian program offers emotional and physical benefits
When Ella Smith, of Mt. Lebanon, began a therapeutic horseback riding program a year ago, the girl was hesitant to even touch a horse.
Now, 9-year-old Ella has worked up to petting, feeding and riding the horse, too, said her mom, Julie Smith.
In-Stride With Therapeutic Riding Inc., a 2-year-old, nonprofit program operating at the West Pike Run Equestrian Center in Coal Center, helps children with special needs to gain confidence and develop abilities to focus, relax and accept change while learning to ride, said founder and director Dana Flaherty, 34, of North Strabane.
Riding also can help to develop core muscles and improve stability, which often is an issue for children with physical disabilities, Ms. Flaherty said.
In-Stride began with one rider and has had as many as 12, but enrollment recently dropped to six, largely due to its location in rural Washington County, Ms. Flaherty said.
Starting Wednesday, she will begin offering additional lessons Sundays at Morning Star Stables on Ridge Road in South Park. She also hopes to open another satellite location in Eighty Four.
"Ella loves it," Ms. Smith said. "She's not been confident when doing other things and now she's extremely confident with this."
Ella is diagnosed with pervasive development disorder, a form of autism, and with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Ms. Smith and her husband, Scott, found information about In-Stride on the Internet after learning about a similar program while vacationing in Virginia with Ella and her brother, Otis, 8.
Related:Thursday, October 23, 2008
West Tennessee - TLC Riding Academy, Inc.
- 106 Gibson Wells-Brazil Road
- Humboldt, TN 38343
- 731-559-4184
This is a charitable endeavor supported mainly by fundraisers and your charitable donations. Although the lessons cost each student $15 per hour, no rider qualified for this program will be denied services because of lack of funds.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Hippotherapy (Horse Therapy) for Autism
Horseback program focuses on autistic riders CHAMBERSBURG, PA.
Holly Bortfeld has watched her autistic son benefit greatly from therapeutic horseback riding over the last decade, but waited several years for a slot to open at the riding center for her 15-year-old daughter, who has Asperger’s syndrome.
While Greta does not communicate verbally much, her mother said the girl’s actions offer the best feedback about the new program at the Franklin County 4-H Therapeutic Riding Center.
“Every Friday, she’s dressed and ready to go,” Holly Bortfeld said.
Summit Endowment established the therapeutic riding center’s new program dedicated to autistic riders. Using contributions from Summit Health, which owns Chambersburg and Waynesboro, Pa., hospitals, the Summit Endowment distributed more than $400,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations this year.
“They’re going to be looking at how the program improves the lives of children with autism,” said Ann Spottswood, Summit Endowment manager.
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