Riding Class Read Online Free PDF Page B

Carole with Sarah, Darcy, and Joshua. Carole watched as Sarah led Joshua through all the steps of grooming a horse. Joshua seemed to know exactly what to do, but he never did it until Sarah asked him to. His face remained expressionless. When Sarah sent him out to get Ditto’s tack, Carole asked about him.
    “Autism is strange and I don’t really understand it,” Sarah told her frankly. “It’s something people are born with. Autistics typically have a great deal of trouble communicating with people, and they don’t cope well with changes in their environment. Joshua seems to understand language, but he doesn’t talk. He’s never spoken to anyone in his life.”
    “Does he like riding?” Carole asked.
    Sarah shrugged. “Who can tell?” she said. “No, that’s not true. He must like it, or he wouldn’t do it. But he never smiles or looks happy.”
    L ISA FOUND HERSELF helping a small boy named Toby groom his horse. Toby had Down syndrome, but he knew everything about grooming. A volunteer named Sam peppered Toby with questions as they brushed a gray mare named Duchess. “How many legs does Duchess have?”
    Toby bent over and counted. “Four!”
    “Good! How many feet?” Sam asked.
    Toby chuckled. “Four—that’s silly. It’s the same as legs.”
    “Yeah, Toby,” Sam said. “Here’s a hard one: How many shoulders?”
    Toby paused and thought hard.
You can do it
, Lisa thought. “Two,” he said at last.
    “Good!” Lisa said. She wanted to try this herself. “How many of us are in this stall?” she asked him.
    “Four,” Toby said.
    “Oh, no.” Lisa felt unreasonably disappointed. “Three, Toby. You, me, and Sam.”
    Toby grinned. “You’re wrong,” he told her. “You, me, Sam, and Duchess. Four.”
    “You’re right. I forgot Duchess,” said Lisa, grinning back.
    “I’m right, I’m right,” Toby chanted happily.
    S TEVIE ’ S RIDER WAS a ten-year-old girl named Claire. She was developmentally disabled, like Toby, and she was blind. Her horse stood on cross-ties in the aisle. Emily had P.C. on the cross-ties just behind Claire’s horse. Stevie greeted Emily and then got to work.
    “Just watch for now,” Wendy, another volunteer, said to Stevie. Claire couldn’t reach very high, but her horse was small and she could groom most of it herself. To Stevie’s surprise, Claire knew exactly what to do. She knew where the grooming bucket was kept on the shelf, she knew all of the grooming tools by feel, and she knew where and how touse them on the horse. Claire kept both hands on the horse’s side.
    “Tell Stevie why you keep both hands on the horse,” Wendy instructed.
    “So I can feel the dirt, and so I can tell when the horse moves. I don’t want to get stepped on.”
    “I don’t want you to get stepped on, either,” Wendy said. “What do we do if the horse moves?”
    Claire laughed. “We dance with the horse! Stevie, we just dance with the horse.”
    “But no aerobics,” Emily cut in from the back.
    “Ballroom dancing,” Stevie agreed. “Do you do a waltz, Claire? One-two-three, one-two-three—” Stevie could remember when Lisa had had to take ballroom dancing.
    “A fox-trot,” Emily supplied. Emily and Stevie cracked up.
    “Hey, Emily,” Claire said, “what’s P.C. stand for today?”
    “Peanut-butter Cookie.”
    D URING THE LESSON , The Saddle Club didn’t do much except walk beside the horses, paying close attention. The experienced volunteers led the horses and made sure the riders didn’t fall off, but the riders held the reins and told the horses which direction and how fast to go. Most of the lesson was at a walk, and most of the time was spent playing what The Saddle Club thought of as games.
    First the riders walked their horses around a series of cones on the ground. Then they walked them over ground poles while standing up in their stirrups. They leaned forward in the saddle and touched their toes. They touched different parts of the horses’