Horse therapy has worked!!

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gone24now

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My son is 7 and has autism with apraxia. Anyone not knowing what apraxia is, basically the brain hears the sound but can't get all the right messages to all the right muscles in the jaw, cheek, tongue etc., properly to make the sounds. We just got a new gelding a couple of weeks ago. First day my son had an uncanny sense of safety with our new horse. Used to sit in the car and not come near the horses. First time he saw him, he watched for 5 minutes and then came over to me and wanted my helmet and then pointed, made eye contact and said up. WOW :eek: I was so elated! So he gets up and we do a little walk about. Yesterday I take him for a walk in the pasture and I'm just leading our horse around here and there, and I hear a sound behind me, my son is saying "Whoa". So I stop walking. I stand silent and do the wait, and in a soft voice I hear "Gee up". So I walk on. So awesome!!!! So this goes on for awhile and his voice gets louder and more confident. Then the whisper starts again but with a different word. Sounds like "low".... OH SLOW!!! So we walk slow, then the word "fas" so we do some slow trot. At the end of it all, after realizing he likes to go "fas" a lot and I am wheezing for breathe, he is laughing and using "Gee up", "Whoa", "fas", and "low" on his own independently. From a mother who has desperately wanted to just hear my son's voice, and finally heard "mom" a few months ago, this is leaps and bounds! And all from a horse. When he arrives he goes around to each stall and says "Hi" to each horse saying each horse's name, and baby horse, and when we leave he goes to each horse and says bye to each horse with their name. It is so overwhelming to watch. He is helping to clean stalls, scoop poop and push and dump the wheelbarrow. He gets hay in the haynet and brings in new shavings. He loves everything about it. What are some of your paths to success that your horse or riding buddy or instructor has taken you on??
:)
 
What a lovely story, I can imagine how thrilled you are with him, it's magical the way horses can change someone's life and bring them out of their shell.

A few years ago we had a young girl ride with us who had very severe cerebal palsy. She couldn't support her own weight in her wheelchair very well, had trouble with speech and very little control over her limb movement. As soon as she sat up on a horse though, she was the most amazing rider. There was something about being on a horse that made her able to sit up tall. I believe she was the best rider we had, and rode with us many years. She learnt to walk, trot and canter with us and absolutely loved her riding lessons. Unfortunately when she turned about 17 she had to have an operation to open up her hips, and had to stop riding with us. It's such ashame as I believe she could have gone on to high levels in her riding. Maybe one day she will be able to ride again though, I really hope so.
 
that is truly amazing.It brought tears to my eyes.How lovely for you and for your son that he has found a way to express his communication.I too have a son with special needs.He has aspergers and Pervasive developmental disorder which are both Autistic spectrum disorders and also global learning difficulties and ADHD.He started at a special needs school this January after a 3 year fight to get him into one and has come along leaps and bounds so I can totally understand where you are coming from.
 
Although it was really hard to hear the diagnosis and some days are really tough, I find that I get so much more joy from Nathan than my other two. Not that I don't get joy and happiness celebrating successes with them, but with Nathan even the littlest thing in a typically developing child can be so awsome with my son. For example, I will always remember the day he buckled his seat belt by himself. Typical kid, I'd probably say "Hey, good for you! You did it!". But with Nathan (5) at the time, our family got out of the car and jumped around on our front lawn and it was an incredibly big deal! We probably looked a little nuts to our neighbors though. :cool: There is a lot to celebrate, in even the smallest successes and accomplishments and it is often overwhelming emotionally.

8 Leg, that is so unfortunate! I'm sure it gave her such confidence and it was probably the one thing she looked forward to. That is such an awful shame. I hope she can continue to some degree at some point! Sometime life sure isn't fair huh?? I'm sure she touched everyone's heart.

Lisa
 
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