Hippotherapy

Friday was our second hippotherapy session.

Kath was scared the first time, you may be able to tell by the pictures. She screamed and freaked for the first few minutes. But once I walked next to the horse (Mark) and held onto her, she settled down and after awhile she held onto the handle with her right hand. She pet the horse and said 'stop' and 'go.' She even bounced her encouragement to Mark. I only have two pictures of her on the horse and that was before she actually became relaxed and enjoyed it. I took more this week and may be picking them up tomorrow.

This week there was no freaking. She has been signing 'horse' for the past two weeks. She allowed Liz to put the helmet on easily, as well as the belt. She even went easily on the horse and went without me! She worked on putting rings on a cone with Mark walking--so there was a lot of bouncing and balancing. She held onto stuffed animals (frogs) while the horse walked and she even sat on the horse backwards and leaned on both hands to keep her balance--that is a good strengthening execise. I was able to see how hard Kath worked, and she lasted longer this week, but I could see how hard it was for her and how hard she had to work to maintain her balance. She is amazing.

Alex had a sibling lesson and she was delighted. She knew that she would have to learn how to take care of the horse, she rode Babe, and not just enjoy the ride. She was willing to do that, but this time she just got to feed him a couple of carrots afterward. before we left the house to drive to EBCPT she said, "I am so excited, I am jumping out of my skin!" She cracks me up.

Well, that is it for tonight. Hope you enjoy the pictures!