By Hermana Rebecca Trujillo | Directora Special Families Saint Julie Billiart
The horse therapy program in Matagalpa has a new assistant and a new horse. The assistant is Rafael a special needs young man who practiced during the Christmas vacation so that he could be ready to start the year helping others to ride into the future. The style of therapy that we provide includes the assistant leading the horse, while the therapist works with the person. Our new horse comes from Dario which is nearby city the horse is a calmer horse because it has been trained specially by Gustavo our horse therapist in his home town. This is giving the option for the children to learn to relate to other horses in their therapy. We also have a visiting volunteer from France who is a young woman who experienced a foot amputation and decided to come to Nicaragua to help out with the horse therapy to share new ideas and she says to give back to others what she received as she recuperated from her amputation.
With all this help the horse therapy continues this year especially focusing on children in the special education school who have autism. Rayitos is the name of our special education school and one day a week the children take a trip to the Alvaro Ranch to get fresh air and therapy. This allows them the possibility to go with their teachers and practice other areas like speech therapy while they are riding. For instance, when they are riding we have banners with pictures of animals placed along the field and the children practice saying the words as they approach each banner. “We are going to the next banner, what do you see? A rabbit. Good! What´s next? A squirrel.” So they work on their pronunciation, the movement of the horse helps them, plus the excitement of discovering the names of new animals.
Our program continues because of the donations we have received and the acceptance of the program. The different television stations in our area have come out to see the program and film stories about our work. This has helped parents and family members to accept and learn more about the therapy their children are receiving. It is not always easy for some mothers to allow their children to ride the horses especially since the horses that we use are large animals. But we work with the mothers to see that it is safe and that it is a good social experience for their children, since they have to accompany their children. We have to work on overprotection, but seeing the program on local news shows makes a difference to the families. It kind of makes it more normal and motivates both the children and the mothers to watch themselves on a news program, as well as creating more public awareness of the abilities of people with disabilities.
By Hermana Rebecca Trujillo | Director Special Families Santa Julia Billiart
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