Hippo Therapy went so much better than we expected!! With that being said, it was still a traumatic experience for Ben and he cried the entire time (poor guy, doesn't he know horse riding is suppose to be fun?). We were shocked and thrilled that Ben was willing to wear his riding helmet without a fight. Even more exciting and shocking was that Ben didn't try to throw himself off the horse and held on to the appropriate bar during most of his ride. However, the ride was only three times around and each time he got much more upset and purple from holding his breath. I think part of that was due to us having to take him off the horse and suction after every lap. Ben would think he was done and then we would plop him back on. Not to mention straddling the horse was the biggest groin stretch he has probably ever gotten and I'm sure that was pretty painful for him... but we need to stretch him out and since he won't let us do it this is our only option. Ben didn't get to ride the pony Dixie like we originally though. They were short on staff that day and had to pick two horses that everyone could ride. Ben rode horse Ben... what are the odds of that?!?! And horse Ben is NO PONY... he is a full sized horse but a very sweet one at that.
Below are some pics from the session. We are going to give it another shot next Monday and see how it goes.
Ben in his rider helmet. He looks more like a motorcycle cop than a horseback rider...
Ben meeting Ben. I'm sure he thought, "this guy is HUGE - where's that pony you showed me the picture of?"
And Ben making his way around the ring... not a happy camper.
3 comments:
Oh, I love these pics, even if Ben wasn't too happy about the whole experience! He looks so cute up there! It's really a good sign that he at least didn't try to throw himself off the horse and he willingly wore his helmet. It may get less scary for him each week now. You're probably right about it being harder for him since he has to get off the horse after each lap to be suctioned, though. Did you try suctioning him while he was on the horse, or were they opposed to doing that since the noise might scare the horse? (These horses don't seem to easily startled to me, though. They're used to being around screaming kids all the time, so you'd think a suction machine wouldn't bother them too bad!)
I'll be volunteering next Monday night (Katie rides at 6:00, too), so we'll see you there!
Too funny Amy!!! (except for him being upset) Motorcycle cop is a good comparison, very cute though. Hopefully he will adjust to being on the horse, don't give up. I made his ABC's & 123's cards today, they turned out really really good. I'm excited for him to see them. See you on Monday.
Kim
Aunt Jen and Cousin Elle said...
Wow! From the footage you couldn't tell he was crying the entire time...he looks like he did great. Personally, I wouldn't be thrilled about getting up on a big horse either, so I can hardly blame him. He looks completely adorable in the first picture with the helmet on...our little equestrian. So cute!!! And by the way, wouldn't it make more sense for them to call it "horse therapy" and not "hippo therapy?" :) Love it
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