HOCKLEY – It is autism awareness month and Hippotherapy (using a horse’s movement as a therapeutic tool) is helping some families get multiple therapy services in one session.
Cowboy Up Therapies said children are excited to come to therapy at their ranch in Hockley and gain confidence, independence, strength and language.
Nora Neill is one of their students. She has autism. Her mother, Melissa, said Nora can communicate but forgets to speak her wants and needs out loud. By working with horses, she has to verbalize the commands to make the horse move.
Nora happily asked her horse to move, “please.”
“When they say the words that we’re targeting and the horse starts walking, that is super rewarding for them,” owner Kelley Warren Jewart said. “If our brain doesn’t have that immediate reward, it doesn’t stick as well, so that immediate reward is very, very powerful for our brain and for any learning.”
The benefits extend beyond autism. Jewart said they can also help children with physical disabilities strengthen their core.
“Some of these kids, the brain has never felt what it feels like to walk, but when the horse is walking, the whole body and the hips are moving in a way that the child would if he or she is walking so it sends that signal up to the brain (like), ‘Hey, this is what you’re supposed to be doing.’ And then the brain says OK and sends a signal back down and strengthens those muscles,” Jewart said.
Sessions are $200 per month and they offer scholarships to help with the burden of paying for therapy.
“We are located on a working cattle ranch so our kids get to go for rides in the pasture, play games while on the horse, and visit our cattle friends with a treat or two,” Jewart said.
Neill said the cost of this therapy is more affordable than some clinical settings and she thinks Nora retains more.
“It’s actually less than what we would’ve spent on therapy after insurance for like a 30-minute speech session in a clinic. So, the price is good for what it’s producing,” Neill said.
