Emma's Horseback Riding

In thinking about and looking for an activity of some sort for Emma to try, I thought about horseback riding. She has always loved animals and enjoyed every opportunity she has had to ride a horse or pony. Additionally, several people have mentioned hippotherapy to me as something that Emma might benefit from. So I checked into it and found an equestrian center that was certified for hippotherapy. So during the Summer, Emma went to speech hippotherapy and got to ride Mystic.Every time she was on that pony, she was just happy as can be grinning from ear to ear. We were hoping that our insurance would cover some of the cost of this therapy, however, they did not cover any of it. So, after 6 weeks (1 day a week), we felt the need to stop the speech hippotherapy. It is something we might come back to in January once we're able to budget the cost a little better.

However, the same equestrian center also offers therapeutic riding lessons which are more affordable for us. So, since the beginning of the school year, Emma has been taking riding lessons once a week. Now she rides Cosmo.She is learning to steer the horse, tell him when to go and when to stop. We're hoping that in addition to having fun learning to ride a horse, that it will improve her coordination and increase her confidence.

The last couple weeks she has trotted with Cosmo - and she just grins so big. (I apologize for the shaky video - you'd think I was on a horse, but I wasn't.)