Julia's Story

TEARS. We see tears sometimes even at a happy place like ROSL: A rider is unhappy and we look at him or her and think, was it something I did, was it something I said, was it the way I looked at him or her? The non-verbal riders at ROSL don't have many other ways of telling us, so then we play detective. Missing mom or dad? Tummy ache? Something pinching? Oh Lord, please let us find out so our rider can have a successful ride. And our Lord answers our prayer. We ride by mom or dad and we get smiles. The horse works its rhythmic magic and the tummy stops aching. We re-examine the rider's position and find the leg a little out of position and then all is well. Happiness all around.

But...sometimes the tears aren't from the rider but from the staff, and that story is why JULIA is our Rising Rider. This young girl with cerebral palsy came to us a few years ago with the request from mom and dad that we work to help her hold her head up. We are ready for challenges, so JULIA came and started riding. The first problem we encountered was the helmet problem. When a little girl has trouble holding her head up while sitting on her mom's lap, the added weight of a helmet makes the task nearly insurmountable! The little blue string is still on one helmet, the string her therapy providers used to control the helmet so JULIA could hold up her head. As time went by she progressed to a different helmet, one a bit lighter in weight that she could manage all by herself. It had been modified over the years to accommodate various riders, cut back so they could see when it kept slipping down little foreheads ~ not pretty but very useful! It was then that the tears story happened. While riding JULIA held up her head for not a brief 2-second count, but for nearly half a minute! She did it! The whole team of adults surrounding her had tears of joy running down our cheeks celebrating her success. That happy day remains in our memories, and JULIA continues to progress. She's wearing the helmet with the little blue string again, but the string is only a reminder of the old days because she holds her head up all by herself, and when she looks way up or rests her head looking way down, she can bring herself back to looking forward ~ with a heavy helmet on and riding a pony. What a great change from having a hard time just holding her head up while sitting still on mom's lap. Happy tears at ROSL!