Micah tolerates Poppy

This is Micah’s newest form of therapy, therapeutic riding. We have been going out to this place called Halleck Creek ranch. It’s a non-profit organization that provides horseback riding for mentally and/or physically disabled people. They allow people from ages 2 to 62 and they offer trail rides on Saturdays which is the day most people go, and then they have individual sessions for others on other days of the week. The trail rides are an hour and a half long, which would be way too long for Micah. So, we go on Wednesday afternoons for half an hour. It’s out in West Marin in a town called Nicasio. It’s a beautiful drive out there and the ranch is literally out in the boonies. Micah rides Poppy, a 6 year old Shetland pony. She was too big to be a show horse, so her owners donated her to Halleck Creek ranch. Micah is getting used to the riding. He probably tolerates it at best. He is annoyed by the helmet and usually doesn’t want to get on the pony. Once Poppy starts moving, things are better. Micah generally loves being outside and loves movement, so eventually I think he will enjoy it more.

As for other news, Micah had an EEG on Tuesday. It revealed no seizure activity, which is great news! The last one he had in June had shown 2 seizures. We haven’t noticed any physical manifestations of seizures either. Micah is not yet saying any words, but is making a lot of different sounds, consonants and vowel sounds and putting some of those together. He now has some type of appointment every day with Speech, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, his weekly program for developmentally delayed kids, and one appt. with a man who comes from Easter Seals every week to do interactive play. Micah deals with some of those appointments better than others. I think he realizes when he gets to Speech and OT that they are going to make him work and then he gets upset. He cries and reaches toward me. His Occ. Therapist said to me about 2 months ago, “I’m going to politely kick you out…go get a coffee or something.” To which I replied, “Hey, no problem. I’d love to do that.” So, now I go run errands or sit and read while Micah has OT. It is much more successful when I am not in there.

I’ll attempt to post the link about Halleck Creek in case any of you want to read more about it.