When Sam arrived at the camp he had never seen a horse in his life before – he was very excited to see them and had no fear of them – whilst he was on the ground !
Getting Sam onto a horse proved to be much more difficult. Ru spent a lot of time with Sam, lifting him on to the pony and back off again – on and off repeatedly for quite a long time, when Sam decided the next day that he didn’t want to get up Ru got me to get on and then we passed Sam up and down the way we had the day before making it playful and fun for him. Sam was fine with this so long as the pony didn’t move… as soon as we started to move it was a big NO ! So we tried 1 step, then another step and so on but when it was evident that wasn’t going to work Ru put Sam on his shoulders and carried him along side me on the horse and rocked Sam in an exaggerated way in time with the gait of the horse – finally Sam settled…
Ru told me that day – Sam will ride tomorrow… I didn’t believe him. The next day was the final morning and I got up on the Horse and Sam was passed up to me and without uttering a sound we went off and we rode like that for around 20 minutes in the snow, my little boy infront of me in the saddle happy !
Other changes in Sam also occurred at the camp… He took himself off to bed on his own (unheard of), he drank water for the first time, he ate using his front teeth to bite for the first time – he had major sensory issues around the front of his mouth and they seemed to disappear. In general he was just much calmer.
