James has been doing therapeutic riding for several weeks now. I’m so thankful we found Wings of Hope Equitherapy. They are an incredible organization. This is definitely one of the best, most effective therapies James has received. He is growing and changing with every visit. I didn’t realize the profound impact therapeutic riding would have on James. Like many, I thought it would be so cool – James could ride a horse, but it is so much more than that.
I shared our experience with riding in a blog for Preemie Babies 101. To read the full post, click the link at the end of the excerpt. Thank for checking it out!
When my son, James, was born early at twenty-two weeks, we had one priority – bringing him home. Thanks to some phenomenal doctors, a lot of prayer, and him being an incredibly feisty little fighter, we were able to do just that. After more than five months in the NICU, we naively thought our biggest battles were behind us. The truth is they were just beginning.
A couple of weeks after bringing James home he was referred to our local Early Intervention program and began therapy. Therapy has been one of our most unanticipated struggles over the past three years. With a background in education and early intervention, I knew the importance of those first few years in his development. We needed to get at everything we could early and hard, and we did just that for many months. Then I hit a wall. Between therapy appointments and doctor appointments, our days were completely filled up. There was little time left for play dates with preemie friends or trips to the park. We struggled to decide what was more important – opportunities for natural development to occur in typical child activities, or days full of therapy. I still have guilt about some of the choice we made, but working through these struggles lead us down some unexpected paths with James that I’m incredibly thankful for. I’d like to share one of them with you in hopes it may meet a need you have to change things up. Not just for your child, but for you and your own sanity.
I first heard about therapeutic riding several years ago. I read about it again as I researched ‘effective therapy’ in hopes of finding something new for James. Something we were missing. Something that was really going to make a difference. (Continue reading here)
