This week I got to volunteer with the Innovative Therapeutic Riding Program down in Idaho Falls, Idaho. I was really impressed with what I saw there. If you don't know what Equine Assisted Therapy is, it's a type of therapy that uses horses to help communicate with and strengthen disabled individuals. It's scope includes children with autism or physical deformities to adults with PTSD or trauma victims. One of the kids there had some developmental and physical delays and was doing a lesson that involved guiding the horse to certain colored cones, stopping, backing up, and trotting. While he was trotting, he landed in the saddle slightly off balance and slipped off the horse onto the ground. I thought because of her disability he probably wouldn't get back on but he did, and without hesitation. It takes a really strong personality to recover from a fall and I was really impressed with him. I wouldn't consider his disability to be something that holds him back at all, if anything it's made him stronger.
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