Tricky Horses, Painful Realities, and Happy Riding

Thursday, July 3, 2008
Aktobe

We restarted hippotherapy yesterday.  After a confusing few weeks of lost trainers, and misplaced owners, we seem to be back on track.  The three boys who previously participated again rode this week, accompanied by their mother or father.  Maral and Assiya also came.  This is really important as the ownership and responsibility is stronger in the organization than when I was the only one attending.  One of our local volunteers, Olga, also came and took wonderful photos.

In addition to simply getting the kids back on the horses, we had some big accomplishments.  Yan, the young man with cerebral palsy who was our first participant made big strides yesterday.  The first day he lay on the horse while we guided it.  He very briefly sat up on the horse, but then quickly lay down again.  The second day I rode with him on the horse, helping him to sit up for the ride.  Yesterday, he sat up on the horse by himself for the whole ride.  He was great.

We also introduced a pony for the younger children.  The two young boys rode the pony alone and then rode Boy, the horse, together with me.  Both were much more relaxed this time and talked more than the first time they rode.  Next week, we’re going to introduce some specific exercises.

I also learned an important lesson about the media, stereotypes, and disability yesterday.  The local newspaper article about our horse therapy program had a big picture of one of the children and me on the horse.  I thought the article was good, the information was accurate and thorough, it enticed 21 families to call us to enroll their disabled children, and the picture was a good representation of the work.  I had also heard that the boy’s mother was unhappy with the article but she hadn’t explained why when we spoke.

Yesterday, she explained.  As she explained, her son is a very active child and a leader in school, in the neighborhood, and in football.  Most of his friends did not know he was disabled, as it’s not extremely obvious.  When the article came out, everyone knew and started mocking him for it.  “Do you have a problem?  Are you an invalid?”  This was traumatic and his mother comforted him and told him everything would be okay and that “Uncle Perry will make things okay.”

She had asked the newspaper not to publish the photo and the reporter had said “ok”.  Then, the article came out and the reporter apologized, saying that it was the designer who had made the decision because it was the best photo.  The young man and his mother both seemed to be more content now, but the experience was clearly traumatic for both of them.  The information can’t be taken back.  But, I hope that as we continue this program and our work together, as the picture fades into memory, and as he continues to grow-up, this will have helped his friends to see disability differently and him and his mother will be more comfortable with the public nature of disability.