Two brothers who benefit tremendously from their hippotherapy sessions at Quest are 9-year-old Christopher and 6-year-old Daniel. Christopher is challenged with decreased coordination, low muscle tone and core strength and Daniel with an autism spectrum diagnosis. The boys had previously tried traditional occupational and physical therapy, and while they found these therapies successful, the boys lost interest in participating.

At his initial evaluation, Christopher reported that he lacked self-confidence with physical activities. His mother also shared that Christopher frequently avoided group games that were physical because he had very poor endurance, physical weakness, and felt he wouldn’t succeed. After only 3 months of hippotherapy, Christopher’s physical endurance showed great improvement, so much so that he made advances in both swimming and karate.

Prior to coming to Quest, Daniel could not engage in ball play with his peers due to a lack of social skills and very poor attention. Also, Daniel was very fearful of falling, especially when completing activities that required good balance and motor control, such as running down a hill. After treatment, Daniel is now able to reciprocally throw and catch a ball with a friend. He is even approaching peers on the playground, asking them to play, and climbing confidently on all playground equipment.

“The boys are always excited to come to therapy. They are engaged and have shown great improvement in their levels of self-confidence both in social skills and physical endurance. We are thrilled and very grateful for their progress and for Quest’s scholarship fund which have made our hippotherapy sessions possible.”

                                                                                                Janet & Jay J., parents