Hippotherapy

According to Wikipedia: Hippotherapy is a form of physical, occupational and speech therapy in which a therapist uses the characteristic movements of a horse to provide carefully graded motor and sensory input. A foundation is established to improve neurological function and sensory processing, which can be generalized to a wide range of daily activities. Unlike therapeutic horseback riding (where specific riding skills are taught), the movement of the horse is a means to a treatment goal when utilizing hippotherapy as a treatment strategy.

Callie started hippotherapy this week!  I have been trying to get her in since last July.  The therapist is amazing and I was really looking forward to our first session.  We headed out to the country and found the riding arena off of a dirt road.  They brought in the horse, an old, mellow guy named Andy, and for 10 minutes we stood next to him getting to know him.  Callie was a little hesitant at first, but was soon reaching out to pet him, touch his mane and nose, etc.  We then put a helmet on her and boosted her up onto his back.  She was all smiles.  Like this:

Then Andy took two steps forward and she was suddenly terrified.  She quickly signed "all done! all done!".  And that was the extent of our first hippotherapy session.  The rest of the time we tried to coax her back up onto old Andy, but no luck.  We will be back to try again in two weeks!