Riding Horses.

Anyone new here may not be aware, but both my boys have Autism. And Autism is quite fun to be around! One of the fun things we get to do is to visit Tara and Eddie every saturday for equestrian therapy. I missed the first, but got the second ride of the season on "film" and am posting it here for you to enjoy!

This was Gator's second time on a horse ~Bella, Sonshine's second time on the tall Paint ~Dakota (he's scared of heights...it's a BIG deal!)



Why equestrian therapy?? Well, here you can see Sonshine's typical posture.

And yet, magically, when riding it changes to......

The more those muscles are used and strengthened the more we're seeing big changes in his ability to stay upright.

Of course, it isn't all fun....we work our whole bodies on the horse, stretching and holding hands up....

and out.....

and back.

Then we turn around and do it all backwards! to work an entirely different set of muscles!

I LOVE this pic!!

this is fun mom!

Meanwhile, Suars is busy chatting up all the other animals at the farm.

She was scared of the "goat who thinks he's a dog" and this is the closest she's gotten to him so far. Give her another two weeks and they'll be best pals!




Napping in the sun!

That looks like so much fun we'll do it too!

Using all those muscles is hard work and flat wears us out!

For more information about our equestrian therapy check out my other blog posts about it.

catching up

Gator-boy started riding Saturday! Here he is, his first time on Mr Bill!

The Picasso of train tracks?

He says the one closest to him is the King and the other is the Queen...think there's too many limbs on them? Guess again!!

These are the King and Queen of Hearts from the following Classic Disney cartoon!!

if you can't watch the whole thing, start at about 5:15 for the explanation.

Sonshine

well, I've been falling down on my Parent Paparazzi duties. The last couple weeks we haven't taken pictures at Riding therapy.

However, I am happy to report that while last Saturday was rained out, the 2 weeks prior he rode the horse. Not only has he gotten so relaxed and comfortable riding that he was able to lay down on the horse's back, but he also has now consented to ride Bella BACKWARDS!!

I'll try and remember to get some pics week after next when we ride again.


After riding last Saturday we met my mom at IHOP to celebrate Sonshine's SIXTH (gasp) birthday this week. We were enjoying ourselves when the waiters all sang happy birthday to a 17yr old at the table behind me. When they finished singing Sonshine says "Don't forget me!!" We hadn't even thought about having them sing to him....and I was really surprised that he connected all those dots on his own!!

So, of course we asked them to come and sing to him, since we WERE there to celebrate his birthday....I wish I'd had my camera!! He just grinned and giggled the whole time. And he BLUSHED!! His little cheeks were red as apples all through the song!! I've never seen him blush before. OH it just made this mom's heart smile!

We'll be having a party with the other side of the family on Wed, his birthday. I'll be sure and have my camera at the ready!

I got canceled from work tonight

So I'm going to spend time uploading some pictures that have been hanging around since last weekend.



This is Sonshine on "Mr. Bill". And yes, we're rained out again for Halloween. The headphones that he's wearing are playing that day's The Listening Program selections. This is an all classical music therapy that is specially designed to help folks with auditory processing problems to learn to process certain sounds while filtering out others.


I am thrilled to report that we now have our very own copies of the TLP CDs thanks to my Aunt Bev and have started both boys listening for 15min a day 5 days a week!! For all my friends who know someone with autism-like issues look into this therapy. I have heard many many good things about it and even I -- the super cautious skeptic nurse-- can't think of a single possible negative aspect of it. As I told Subvet, even if the special orchestrations and such ultimately prove to be pointless, the very fact of having the child sit quietly and attend to good classical music for 15 min stretches can only be good for the attention span!

Whacha got there Mr Eddie?

You want me to let go of Mr. Bill???

You're kidding, right?

I'll think about it and get back to you!

Well, okay,.....maybe I can do this........

Woohooooo!!

Mr. Bill was at a walk or trot the whole time! This last pic is kinda like riding your bike without hands.

Sonshine did a great job and was much more cooperative this week.

From riding we went to another BIG SURPRISE.....which will be in a post tomorrow....so y'all just sit tight okay. In the meantime here's some pictures of the view between our house and riding therapy.

Poor cows can't even get to their feeder without going wading....

For you farm folks out there who can empathize.....this is a plowed and planted field...

full of standing water.

These were taken Saturday morning as we returned home to load the troops before heading out to the SUPRISE destination.

By Tuesday night when I went to work these fields were completely under water. I wish I'd taken my camera with me to show you. And there's rain predicted for tonight, all day tomorrow, and friday.

Aside from Sonshine's horse riding being rained out for 6 of the 8 weeks since it began I feel very bad for these farmers.....is it too late to plant rice?

Riding's rained out!

Phooey!


So I'm gonna post pics from last Saturday which was cool, sunny and beautiful!




First off, I have a new favorite ice cream flavor!

It's right up there with Mocha Madness (which they're not making right now. :P)


Last Saturday we rode. This is the beginning of the ride and he hadn't found his happy horsey zone yet.

After the ride we picked up the rest of the clan and headed out to our church's Carnival!!!

I was too busy helping to herd the hooligans to get many pictures....

but the highlight of the day for Sonshine was getting his face painted!! He picked the clown!

Gator INSISTED on having a butterfly....but wasn't too happy with the actual painting part, I had to help hold him still.

Such a clown.

Sugars was all set for a butterfly.....but she would NOT let them paint her face for love, money, or ice cream. So she got a little blue eyeshadow and a butterflied leg instead....

Now, the other BIG DEAL was the firetruck, firemen, and Sparky the fire-fighting dog!!

You must know that Sonshine plans on growing up to be a fireman! We've been trying for over a month to plan another trip to my uncle's fire station without success so he was THRILLED to see this bunch!

When they had a fire safety assembly Thursday he was soooo very excited!! Came home telling me all about the presentation and Sparky!! Hopefully we'll see Uncle Michael in a couple weeks......course Sonshine may spontaneously combust when we get there, requiring a whole new lesson in fire safety!!

Also on Thursday I took the younger 2 to Gator's therapy......as you can see Miss Sugars was NOT bored during the 90 minute wait!

Have a good weekend folks! I'll be catching up on all your posts over the next 3 or 4 days.

Riding the Horsey.

First off, I must apologize to the grown ups in these pictures. Honestly, I did NOT intend to take a bunch of butt shots!! I promise!!!



The star of the day....here is Bella! She's Sonshine's Walk On! therapy horse.

First come the introductions:
Sonshine to the all volunteer crew

(Mom found her ZOOM!)


Introducing Sonshine to Bella
first the sniff....



then the pat....


and up we go!

You can see that there's always one person leading the horse and a "sidewalker" on each side making sure the rider stays in place. Mrs Tara is in the middle of the arena giving instructions.

He did a bit of yelling for help....
and a couple of times demanded for someone to "Get me off of here!"


But that was soon replaced with chatter...


He told Mr Eddie all about our 2 cats Mr Boots and Speedy-girl



And he was fascinated by the piles of poop in the arena...



Stopping for a quick drink...



After his ride Mrs Tara said he could help her clean a little bit.....


since he was so fascinated with the horse poop.



This was his FAVORITE part!!

After his ride he went indoors and played in the sand and listened to special TLP music.

This was my companion for the ride....Silver Bullet, aka the goat who thinks he's a dog. He spent nearly the whole riding time leaning against my legs.

Some things in life really are priceless!