Horses and Autistic Children

Horses and Special Needs Kids Find a Place to Meet: The New Role of Horse Therapy for Autistic Children

Parents of autistic children have had many therapies and medications tossed their way, with hopes of reaching their children on a whole new level. Despite all the promises, developing theories, and indications that these therapies and medications should work, many parents are now looking toward alternative methods of finding peace with their children's condition. Horse therapy is a new but promising therapy for children with all type of disabilities, although the autistic aware community has become increasingly focused on this type of therapy.

Horses are of course majestic animals that carry with them a fabulous tale of potential, wonder, and amazing feats. However, their new role as a therapy model for autistic children has come under great scrutiny from some more clinically disposed experts. There are ample psychiatrists, physicians, and other experts who believe that horse therapy does nothing more than introduce an additional stimulus into the mix. There are others who believe that horse therapy holds great potential for those well trained and great potential for failure for those who believe they can just stick an autistic child and a horse in the same area and wait for a miracle.

The Horse Communicator

There have been movies made and books written about the possibilities horse therapies present. In fact, some of the great myths and legends of Native American origin include horses that can ultimately reach the unreachable, guide the blind and grace the deaf. These myths and legends make fantastic movie material, but those with disabled children live in the real world. Is it possible that a horse can help bring a child to a new level of communication? Of course it is. Those who have experienced success state rather emphatically that the therapy is not for all autistic children or all horses. Some horses, just like people or dogs or cats, have a higher degree of sensitivity. Some autistic children are looking to be reached while others are not. The right child paired with the right horse is the magic combination, according to those who have successfully helped autistic children communicate and reach out through horses.

Hopes, Dreams, and Realism

Many therapies that come along in hopes of helping autistic and otherwise disabled children, all of which are heavily publicized and turned into the media spectacle of new hope and promise. Horse therapy has intentionally stayed as far from the media spotlight as possible because those who have received the appropriate training and participate in case studies want parents to understand that the horses are incredibly sensitive and can, in some cases, offer the child a way to facilitate a directive communication. But just like all other therapies and treatments, especially those that are experimental, horses have shown great promise and have reached a few hundred children in ways that their parents and other experts have not been able to. However, not every disabled child will look toward a horse just as not every disabled child will respond the same way toward medication and other therapies.

Not Just Any Trainer

The neighbor down the road who owns a horse or that farm that you pass on the way to the beach that has horses running around is not likely to be the place to introduce a disabled child to the horse. Horses that have proven to work effectively with disabled children have undergone some amount of training to help make them less intimidating. The trainers have gone through extensive training in order to understand how previously successful sessions have worked. Parents should be strongly cautioned against anyone making significant claims, advertising the services of their horse, or anyone offering to treat the child that offers up no credible form of proof of education and certification. People will prey on the desperate, and horse therapy is no different. It takes the right trainer with the right horse to try to involve a disabled child in horse therapy.

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