Therapeutic Horse Riding at Three Years Old

When Jamie turned three we couldn't wait to start riding horses. We had heard so much about how the program had helped other children and it just sounded fun. It is! It is the highlight of our week.

The program he is involved in is very complete and staffed by many wonderful volunteers. Jamie is learning to hold the reins, carry objects , open mailboxes, and many other wonderful OT activities.

There are of course tremendous PT benefits as well. The horse seems to loosen him up better than any other activity we do and his balance and core strength have improved noticeably.

I enjoy side-walking with him and helping them with their website when I can as well. If you have a program in your area we highly recommend getting involved.

Some tricks we have:

• When it is hot we cover Jamie's head with a damp or wet rag
• For Jamie's allergies we change clothes right away when we get home and wash our hands
• Spend lots of time talking about horses, toy horses, what the horse says, "walk on" and "woa" to go and stop
• Lots of water before and after
• Easy on the snacks before
• A bit of hot coffee and/or albuterol before to help his energy and to help him cough
• I learned to be a sidewalker (It's easy and he hasn't hit the dirt yet)