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 It was fate when Taffy, a painted pony in her late twenties, was rescued from a barn fire. At the time of the fire Jennifer, her owner, was readying herself for college. It took two years for her to decide, with her mother’s help, that Taffy would be happy being a therapy horse. Jennifer and her mother called Meggan Hill, horse trainer and North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) certified Advanced Therapeutic Horseback Riding Instructor. Taffy passed all the exercise drills, veterinary examinations, environment and behavioral tests and horse profiles with flying colors, something, according to Meggan, only about one percent of horses reviewed can do. Meggan remembers the day Taffy came to Cowboy Dreams. “She had a look, a sparkle in her eye. She was definitely special. Her eyes seemed so kind, as if she was asking, ‘How can I help?’” In hippotherapy a child and horse work together with the assistance of a knowledgeable therapist. Riding a horse moves the rider’s pelvis, legs and trunk in a rhythmic and  repetitive way. The horse’s walk provides the rider with essential sensory input that simulates the human gait. With children who suffer from muscular disorders, the horse’s body warmth reduces muscle spasms and increases the child’s hip and leg flexibility. The child’s nervous system assimilates the information this movement provides, resulting in many significant, sometimes amazing, sensory and motor gains. A regular program of hippotherapy gives children notable improvements in mobility, strength, function and coordination. There is no machine, no human, and no team that can offer the same benefits.
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------------------------------------------------ This was what Cari Oliver read in the local paper about Cowboy Dreams. Her daughter, five-year-old Caitlin, was born with quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy and was asthmatic. She had already had brain surgery to repair a malformation. Her immobility left her dependent on her family to dress her, brush her hair and teeth, and feed her. Numerous medications and surgeries partly decreased her muscle spasms. The casts on her arms were intended to one day increase her mobility. In the meantime, she was unable to play and run like other little girls. Cari hoped that Cowboy Dreams could help Caitlin and enrolled her in September 2000.  The perfect horse for a little girl is a little horse and Taffy was that horse. A special bond developed between Caitlin and Taffy that started with their first ride. Caitlin loved the power and freedom that riding Taffy gave her and Taffy loved Caitlin’s gentle pats and kisses on her muzzle. Caitlin experienced a new relaxed and happy feeling that followed each hippotherapy session. It lasted all day and helped her sleep through the night. After Caitlin’s first ride on Taffy, Cari noticed an immediate difference in her daughter’s body. “When I carried her into the barn [for her first session, her legs were so tense that] she could hardly get her legs around my waist. After her hippotherapy session, her legs were so loose, she had no problem getting them around my waist.” In time, other problems also diminished. If Caitlin sat facing forward on Taffy to steer (hippotherapy uses lots of positions), it didn’t bother her so much to separate her legs. The typical painfulness of Caitlin’s physical therapy for tight and spastic muscles virtually disappeared. In place of the hunched over little girl who sat miserably looking down and complaining of how tight she was, a tiny, giggling sprite was sitting up, pulling her shoulders back, and lifting her chin to see between Taffy’s ears. Caitlin was in control of on area of her life, even if that control was only steering a small pony, and she loved it.
As the weeks of hippotherapy proceeded, new activities were added to Caitlin’s therapy. Taffy accepted without complaint the tasks that Caitlin’s therapists devised to increase her reaching; Caitlin hung toy rings over Taffy’s ears; she tugged on her mane and tail. Next Caitlin lay on her stomach while riding. Taffy did not mind being bumped in the flanks; she gave no irritable head tosses. Taffy enjoyed her routine with Caitlin and may even have understood in some way that Caitlin needed her to be quiet, consistent and strong. Caitlin enjoyed her rides on Taffy and the new positions. The once shy little girl was shy no more. She rallied others to cheer for her and made requests that they find her even more challenging riding positions. The new challenges brought new successes for Caitlin. It has been almost two years since Caitlin began riding Taffy. Her confidence fills the air each time she is in the riding arena. The planned surgeries to help release hip and leg muscles that both doctors and therapists had thought were inevitable have been canceled. As long as she has Taffy, her hips and leg muscles are better than any surgery could make them. Before she started riding, Caitlin’s long fatigued days led to sleepless nights, which led to much higher muscle tone, which led to more fatigue: an unending cycle. Because she sleeps better on the days she rides, her muscle tone is lower, more normal, the following day. She has more normal cycles of rest and alertness.  Before Taffy, Caitlin had no interest in, much less time for, hobbies. Her life was an endless cycle of therapies. Since Taffy, she envelops herself in horses. She reads about horses, colors pictures of horses, watches any movie with horses, and has real friends who also love horses. Her new friends are children she has met at Cowboy Dreams, and she is comforted by this. She calls them on the phone, plays with them at birthday parties, and talks with them endlessly about how much they love horses. She has a normal little girl’s life and she has hope for her future.
The older girls in therapeutic riding do positions on their horses that she has not yet tried. They are role models for her. She watches them and wants to ride like they do. Caitlin is herself a role model for younger children with cerebral palsy. Their dreams grow because she gives them hope. With hippotherapy they all have a future that was not possible before. As for Taffy, at twenty-some years, she is an old girl, even for therapeutic riding. But as long as she seems to enjoy it and as long as her body can handle it, she will patiently carry children on her painted back, her gentle nature, and her perfect size and gait making her the ideal therapeutic horse.
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