Provide HorseTHERAPY to 50 Nicaraguan Children

Starting up is always a little bit hard as our two horses Pájaro and  Dario, get ready for another year of horse therapy with the children from Special families.  The summer is starting in Nicaragua and this means that the riding will be smooth and easy.  As Gustavo starts setting goals for each child in the program he needs to consider how they did last year and create realistic ones such as being able to lift their heads or gain more balance or strengthen certain muscles.  Darling will also be working with horse therapy but only one day a week.  She will be doing the young children who are receiving early intervention.  Darling worked exclusively before with early intervention in the rural area of Mulukukú where she was in charge of the therapy program for the ministry of health. This year since all of the social staff will be working on early intervention.  She and Gustavo are preparing some talks to the rest of the staff about their experience of early intervention.  Early interventions is a priority for special families because it is a good way to get children off to a good start and to help create good practices for their mothers.  There are many studies done saying that it makes a major difference for children in academic growth, social integration and physical growth patterns.  Darling has been identifying those children who will benefit from physical therapy as well as the horse therapy to give these children an extra boost..  Each week she will bring the children to the farm to use one of the two horses. 

Now the process is starting as Alvaro begins to feed the horses on what he calls an athlete regimen.  This will get them ready to be able to do their work with the children.  These two horses are really seen as athletes, they are Spanish breed and are very large. They often participate in the big horse shows that Matagalpa presents.  For the children this is an extra treat as they attend the big shows and see their favorite horses all dressed up and dancing and prancing for the public.   This is the type of horse indicated for our therapy even though  many people  think that we should use Ponies, but no we need horses that are larger and more trained.  This is why it is esssential that our therapists have to be horse experts.  Gustavo also tains his horse to be in the big Nicarguan horse shows.  It is essential that all concerned are comfortable with horses.  Oscar and Darwin are the two new assistants for 2020.  They are being trained more clsoely with Gustavo and will often work together to enusre the safety of each child. Gustavo and Darling join together with Pajaro and Dario to welcome this year´s children to their therapy, ready to work on new goals along with their mothers. We want to thank all of you who have contributed to this project because we want to continue it with great care so that chidren,mothers,assistants, horses and therapists can keep growing in their skills, in the summer sun of Nicaragua.