Cody- Riding on Angels Wings- Day Four

Day 4 was far and away my favorite day at Riding on Angels Wings in Minnesota. The reason for this was that the first horse therapy class of the year was held. It is too bad that Minnesota is so cold that these classes cannot be held year round. We went about four hours before the class so that we could set up and help before the kids actually arrived. Our group was responsible for setting up the arena. We placed buckets and cones in different places around the arena. There are several horse therapy instructors that work at ROAW, and these are the individuals who actually run the classes and give directions to the riders. Our group was also responsible for watering down the dirt in the arena, and this was done in order to avoid a surplus of dust in the arena. The kids finally came and we were able to actually meet the kids that we were helping, and to visually see how these horse therapy classes actually worked. There were three kids and each session, and therefore three horse in the arena at one time. The kids mount he horses using a stair case, and this isn't always easy depending on how the horse is acting, and how bug the kid is. Our job, as volunteers, was to be side walkers. Most of the kids were dependent, and therefore, needed help staying up on the horse, so our job was to walk beside them with either a hand on the knee or a hand on the ankle to help them with support. The class was really cool to witness, because the instructor organizes the class in a way that they kids are challenged to remember the commands for horses, such as "walk on" to order the horse to walk forward, and "whoa" as a way to tell the  horse to halt. The barrels and cones were used to weave in and out of. The kids were encouraged to do different activities such as put their hand on their head and put them out to the sides. All of these with the idea of encourage movement which helps with strength and flexibility for the kids.