Horseback Riding Therapy; the trial session

There are so many kinds of therapy available for autistic children!  So many claims of "cures" with so little in the way of supportive data that I often want to scream in frustration.  When I first heard of horse-back riding therapy, or Hippotherapy, I was originally quite cynical.  But the first stage of Gene's Medicaid Waiver had gone through and this was one of the few therapies that was fully covered.  So, I began my research.

To my pleasant surprise, Hippotherapy has a history going back into the 1950's for many kinds of physical and neurological conditions.  A good history with a proven track record of repeated successes.  So I found a local stable that specialized in Hippotherapy and made an appointment for a trial session.

I prepared Gene as best I could.  I explained riding and showed him video clips on YouTube of children riding horses.  Gene seemed a little withdrawn and disinterested during all the explanations and walked away from the computer during the videos.  I could only hope that it wasn't too overwhelming.  Gene was 5 and weighed in at well over 40 lbs, mostly muscle, and was difficult to physically handle if he was having a fit.  He was also practically non-verbal and so it was pretty much impossible to negotiate with him. He could understand a good sized number of words, particularly for his age, but his speech was, at best, monosyllabic.

The day we went to the stable was a warm day in early Fall.  I came in with Gene who immediately began to cry.  He would not go near the horse.  He would not go near the mounting block.  The only thing that he would tolerate, oddly, was the riding helmet. After 15 minutes of crying, I finally started making "I'm sorry to be wasting your time" noises at the therapist and prepared to start taking Gene home. The therapist kept talking to me, encouraging me to make another appointment to see if familiarity with the stable would help at another trip.

I was about to try to make my excuses to leave when I noticed that the noise level was down.  I looked over at Gene and saw what I can only name "The Reset" look on his face.  He got up off the ground, deliberately wiped the tears off his face as though he was trying to wipe away his entire upset, and walked to the gate.  The therapist opened the gate and Gene marched up to the mounting block and before the therapist knew what was happening, clambered onto the patiently waiting horse, just as he had seen in the videos that I had shown him!

The stable volunteers, stunned by this sudden change, awkwardly got in place surrounding Gene on the horse to keep him balanced and from falling off.  The therapist began to put the horse, named Beau, through some simple exercises.  The therapist was even getting Gene to say "Walk On!" and "Ho!" to get that incredibly well-trained horse to walk and to stop.  Gene was so comfortable on Beau that they even walked outside and past another paddock of horses.
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After this amazing success, I immediately got Gene onto the waiting list for the stable and then took him home.  At this point in his life, Gene's memory was only good for about 10 minutes.  So imagine my surprise an hour later, when Gene correctly told me the name of the horse that he had ridden.

And then my non-verbal child did something completely new; he babbled!  Oh how he babbled!  He babbled about. "Beau walked when I yelled 'Walk On!' and stopped when I yelled 'Ho!' and Beau walked around the barn and Beau walked outside and Beau ate some grass and Beau saw some other horses and said 'Neigh' and . . . ."  Just like any other 5-year-old who had just had an exciting experience!

My heart sang!