Honor Baslim - Week 3

Hello friends!

Sorry I'm late with these last few posts - things have been going well at the center.

I've been working in more and more lessons lately, I had a wonderful experience with this little girl Samantha (name changed) who has both physical and mental disabilities but the best attitude I've seen in a long time. She's been coming to the center for therapeutic riding since she was 5 (she's 11 now) and although it takes a lot out of her to expend the energy to hold not only herself up, but also to hold her reins and also to communicate with her instructor she still does it all with the biggest smile.

Mikey

We've had some issues with a couple of our horses this last week unfortunately - Mikey who is already oddly spooked (he's never been abused or anything like that, just quirky) is having some issues with the ramp which has to be used for all horse mountings, so that will need to be fixed.

We're also in the process of adding a new horse - Poné to the program. There's a 90 day vetting process where he goes through trainings and eventually he's assessed on his compatibility with the program and therapeutic riding and a decision is made. Unfortunately Poné was abused before and he has some issues with meeting new people. He's getting a lot better though - he's no longer afraid of the ramp, has no issues with any of the toys the instructors use in lessons, is ok being tacked up. We're still working on his introductions to strangers (he is most comfortable with myself and the full time staff at the center) and with side walkers - he's really good at reading body language so when there's 4 or 5 different people around him he tries to read everyone's body language and obviously can't and then gets pretty agitated.

That's all for now! Will write again soon!