From Bonnie and Brian
We are the parents of two autistic little boys,
who keep us on red-alert pretty much all the time - but especially when
we go "out" somewhere. So here we are at Horse Friends and, lo and
behold, they don't expect me to keep my child occupied for half an hour
waiting his turn to ride. I find myself sitting down, mind you! That's
what I said, sitting down--in the back of the Gator while Steve drove us
around and around the farm. Then it was time for our youngest kid to
ride, and again I was not the one to steady him. They have charming
young ladies doing that while we actually get to watch or finish a
sentence talking to another mom. Loneliness can slowly eat away the
self-confidence of a mother whose child cannot be left for a moment ever
while she visits with another adult.
Horse Friends gives us as a family a short
window of time each week where we can all be as normal as possible. Our
two teenagers are involved in side-walking while the little boys ride.
My husband and I can visit with other adults or with each other. And
one night after his ride at Horse Friends our youngest little boy
started to talk! We had been doing some pretty intense biomedical
interventions before that which, I think, were addressing neurological
problems at their source. However sometimes your body does not even
realize it is healed until it gets a little outside push. Jesus usually
told people to do something, and they would realize they were healed.
It seemed that the adrenaline and heightened awareness that comes from
horseback riding caused Derek to realize he could talk. |
