Times of India, Ahmedabad Edition; February 2, 2010
Ahmedabad: Sachin was horrified to learn that his wife had taken their three-year-old autistic son for horse riding. Sachin immediately left office to join his child.
But what he saw at the Elina Stables near Santej was heart warming. His son Keshav was standing close to a horse all by himself, feeling him and asking his mother if he could take a ride right away.
Hippotherapy, where the horse becomes the therapists or healers, is the new way of treatment that the children born with autism are getting in the city, all thanks to a horse lover Virendra Kankariya. He is also the founder of Equestrian Club of Gujarat and the All Gujarat Horse Breeders Association.
“Last year I had been to US for a rare breed of horses. In one of the farms that I visited, I saw a group of toddlers spending time with the horses. Enquired, I was told these were autistic children and were getting hippotherapy. I got interested an wanted to learn more, so I attended a week-long training session that taught me how give the therapy sessions,” said Kankariya.
After his return, Kankariya approached over 20 organisations, working with autistic children, offering his services and got response from Setu Developmental Intervention Centre, Ahmedabad. Since the last six months eight children from Setu are being taken to the stables once a month to spend a few hours with horses.
“The autistic children have a very poor social psychology. They are introvert and emotionally inert. They suffer from sensory problems, are selfabsorbed, have a purpose-oriented interaction and do not respond to their name, touch or any other communication. In the first session, the most difficult part for us is to bring the children close enough to a huge animal. The response of their parents has been good despite initial misgivings,” said Minal Doshi, one of the trustees of Setu.
When asked what was his most special moment at the sessions so far, he said, “There was one boy, who on the first session wailed and would not step close to a horse. By the end of the session, we were not only able to calm him but also convinced him to sit on the horse. In the second session, when he entered the farm, he ran to a horse and turned to his mother to say, ‘I want to ride him’. His mother was amazed because this child never talked.”
How it works
According to horse lover Virendra Kankariya, hippotherapy works using the sensory skills of the child. The rhythm in which the horse moves, making the rider move with him provides physical and sensory input, which is variable, rhythmic and repetitive. With autistic children it works with their speech and language abilities, articulation, respiration and postural control, sensory processing, behavioural and cognitive abilities.
Copyright © Ammado AG, 2012