I met Clemintina and her mom the first week I volunteered in the clinic. A sweet little girl with cerebral palsy and other developmental issues. She has especially limited mobility with the right side of her body. We sat on the cement floor on a mat as I demonstrated to her mom how she could do some slow gentle stretching and play little games with Clemintina to help her stretch her muscles and increase her coordination. Clemintina fussed a little and didn't show much expression. We were able to place some small objects in her hands and get her to look at them. We also just spent time encouraging mom and going on over her little girl. We encouraged her to come back again the following week for more time to meet together instead of waiting for two weeks. After she left we commented that she would be a good candidate for introducing to therapeutic riding with the horses.
Fast forward to the next week...Tuesday afternoon Clemintina and her mom arrived to the clinic for more services and therapy time. Heide asked her mom if we could take her out to introduce her to the horses, and she reluctantly said yes. As Heide held Clemintina in her arms and got closer to the horses, I could see mom's blood pressure rising. She wasn't so sure about this. I don't blame her! I stood close to her and reassured her as Heide lifted her sweet little one up on onto Ellie (the horse).
At first we gently laid Clemintina on her belly over the horse's back. Tyson was there helping as well. It was so fun to do something like this together. This was one of my favorite moments the entire month! To watch what unfolded over this fifteen minutes or so was so priceless. Minute by minute that this child was on the horse she became more alert and alive than any of us had seen her. She began to pick her little head up and look around.
Heide continued to work on some stretching while she had her up there. The longer she was up there the more her body relaxed. Next we wanted to see how she would do in a sitting up position. Her little legs were just too stiff and tight to straddle the horse so we propped her up in a "side saddle" position. Look at her picking her little head up and looking around!
As she sat up on the horse, her dispostion continued to blossom before our very eyes. You can see the joy on Sarah's face that speaks a thousand words. As we were all getting excited I looked over to check on her mother, and she was standing by but didn't really seem a part of what was going on. I wanted her to feel included in the process, so I got someone to encourage her to participate by calling out her daughter's name, so she could see that her mom was watching. Oh my goodness! When that mom began to wave and say, "Clemintina, Clemintina!..."
Her little ears perked up to the sound of her mother's voice. She began scanning the crowd for that one voice. When their eyes met my heart melted.
She lifted up her left arm and began waving to her mom. The wave turned to smiles and the smiles turned to all out laughter! The more mom waved and called her name, the more she smiled, laughed, and waved! And the more my eyes filled with tears!
It was like a fountain of joy bubbling up in all of us to see this mom and child interact in this way. It was a beautiful thing. As they were leaving we encouraged her to come back again in a week instead of two weeks, and she said, "Can we work with the horses again when I come back next week?" Ha!
This was just as beneficial to the mom as it was to Clemintina, I believe.
