Saturday Therapeutic Horseback Riding

Jason is back in the saddle!!

Today, Jason rode Sammy again for the first time.  He looks SO much better and had so much more strength today than he did on his last ride:  

Walking Sam to the arena

For those of you who may not know, therapeutic horseback riding is sort of a mix of physical, occupational and speech therapy.  (Hippotherapy is this sort of riding administered by either a physical, occupational or speech therapist).  Jason had all three therapies while he was still going through cancer treatments, and then for a while after that.  The benefits to therapeutic riding are ENORMOUS.  

A quick break-down:

Gross-motor benefits: riding strengthens your core, stretches and strengthens your legs and builds balance.  It takes a strong person to handle a 1200 lbs animal!

Fine-motor benefits: grooming a horse takes fine and gross motor coordination.  The buckles (called billets on an english saddle and latigo on a western saddle) on a saddle require fine muscle coordination.  Reining (either neck-reining, done with one hand, or direct reining, done with two hands) takes a lot of fine motor coordination and planning.

Speech benefits:  riding gives the student something to share with other people and helps them break out of their comfort zone.

Cognitive benefits:  Horseback riding is a full body and a full brain workout.  You have to plan where you will ride next, pay attention to what your body is doing and how you are speaking to your horse through body position and reining.  As you move to faster gaits (walk, trot, canter, gallop) you may have to post (when trotting) or be aware of which lead your horse is picking up.  

And, no offense to any physical or occupational therapists or speech-language pathologists (you guys are great!) out there, but horseback riding is so much more fun than regular therapy!

Jason's Day:

Jason's teacher is Peyton; she has been teaching therapeutic riding for many years and is one of the very best in the business!  She is so compassionate and she knows all the ins and outs of what she's teaching!

They started with grooming Sam:

Picking out Sam's feet

Then they got the saddle on:

      That's an English saddle :)

Want to go for a ride?

Jason then walked Sam down to the indoor arena (it's hot outside!) and his lesson officially began!

Getting set up

Jason stayed on a loose lead for the first few minutes of his lesson.  Then Peyton put Sam on a lunge line so Jason could work on stretching and warming up.  This stretching is good for any level rider to do.  But it is especially helpful and gentle on Jason's weary muscles.

Horses give you wings!

Jason also worked on a slow trot (called a "jog") while on Sam.  In the picture above you can see Sam has his head lowered.  He is a really special horse; he can be ridden in an english or a western saddle and can both neck and direct rein.  His lowered neck is part of his western "jog" and his jog in particular is a smooth and wonderful gait to ride!

Then it was time to go off-lead:

Talking Jason through a two-point; this is the position used when jumping but is great for building balance and leg strength

Let's ride!

Jason did GREAT on Sammy today, he practiced steering, trotting, and overall just looked so great with Sam!  He played "tip the cow", where he had to steer Sam and run over cones all over the arena.  It took skill and he got every single one!  (that's what he's doing in the above pic!)

Jason rode for over an hour total, which is so impressive considering all he's been through.  It was so great to see how far he has come and to be reminded once again of how much he can really do.

This is Jason at the end of his lesson.  He is running his stirrups.  You do this with an English saddle; basically you run the stirrup irons up to the seat of the saddle so they don't bang against your horse's side when you walk back.

Good job buddy!

At the end of his lesson Jason also helped hose Sam down (gets the sweat off so the flies won't bug him!) and then walked him back to his stall.

It was such a wonderful morning; it was just another example of the wonderful friends we are surrounded by and all the people willing to help Jason.  Peyton has taught me in riding as well, and we worked together for a while.  I've learned a lot from her in a lot of ways and she is really the best at what she does!  We are SO grateful to her and Sam for all they've done for JJ!  Jason will be riding weekly and I know this will help him regain his strength and grow so much!

If you have more questions about therapeutic riding feel free to ask in the comments or message me on Facebook.  I could talk about horses and horseback riding for hours!  I will continue to update Jason's progress through this blog however, so check back often!

Top of the Muffin to ya'll!

-LeAnne




**P.S. speaking of asking questions, I added a new link to Mormon.org to our blog; it's a profile I filled out with more information about the church my family and I belong to, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It is a huge (defining really) part of our lives and who we are.  Just more information for anyone who's ever been curious.  It's also another topic I love to talk about so don't hesitate to ask me if you have questions, or share that link with a friend who does :)