by Sarah Williams

Created on: October 11, 2010

Therapeutic riding schools have been popping up all over the United States, and even the world, and for good reason.  There is something magical about the connection between human and equine, and this connection seems to be amplified on both sides when it comes to handicapped children.  These children often feel as though they are completely isolated from the rest of the world-different, undeserving, useless-and working with/riding horses is something that helps to counteract these false and negative thoughts to aid in the healing process. 

When I was sixteen years old, I volunteered at a riding school for the blind.  I had been riding all of my life, but up until that point, I had never truly experienced the true depth of the equine soul.  From the very first day, I saw horses who would tread lighter, step softer, lower their heads so that the children could more easily bridle them...these horses were actually taking greater care with these blind children than they would with the trainers and the other handlers.  I can remember asking how the horses were trained to act this way, and I was floored when the head trainer told me that they weren't, it was just something they did naturally for the children. 

Through the years, I have had interactions with many different therapy schools who catered to everything from children with severe physical disabilities to those who were handicapped by mental issues.  I watched as severely autistic children came to life atop their therapy mounts, and quadriplegic kids smiled and laughed as they experienced the gentle rolling motion of a horse's walk for the first time.  One thing that all of these schools had in common was a general rule that the children would not be treated as though they were disabled.  Sure, they were kept safe, watched, and their obvious limitations were addressed, but they were also pushed to do things that were out of their normal comfort level.  This allowed the children to gain a sense of accomplishment, sometimes for the first time in their young lives.  This accomplishment had a sort of snowball effect, giving the children self-confidence, which allowed them to take more risks and open themselves up to more opportunities. 

Additionally, I have found that the physical benefits of taking children who are often quite sedentary and allowing them to enjoy a physical activity that requires stretching, muscle strength, etc., was amazingly beneficial.  I had one mother tell me that her daughter (who was paralyzed from the waist down) had all but given up on life until she began riding weekly at the therapeutic riding school, and within two months, she had gained so much strength in her arms and torso that she was able to lift herself from her chair to the bed, toilet, shower, etc. without assistance. 

In the end, when it comes to handicapped children, what most of them lack most is a will to thrive and the confidence to see far enough ahead of their situation to realize they do have a beautiful future.  Horses and horseback riding gives children that ability to grow beyond what they thought was possible; they become strong, in charge, and free while they are riding, and this filters into the rest of their lives as well. 

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