this is why i want to be a therapeutic riding instructor:
He’s eleven and he hates you. He puts in six tough hours every day at school learning how to fail. He has a good instructor - himself.
He can’t draw a picture, add numbers, or write a story...Never could. And he knows it. Everybody he has ever met made it clear to him that he was beneath them, a loser. Even changing schools didn’t help. In the text books he is described as “learning disabled,” an “academic underachiever, ”or “hyperactive,” “manic,” ... or even just “trouble.”
Last fall, he met the first gentleman in his whole life who didn’t pass immediate judgment on him. He was a short, fuzzy fellow with large brown eyes and the kindness not to frighten an eleven year old boy.
So the boy slapped him. Then, he pushed him around and tried to hurt him, dealing with the pony the same way he dealt with everybody. But the pony’s kind eyes and patience had seen it all before. The pony gave the boy his first “over achievement:” his first turn at bat where he was doomed to success, and his first indestructible friendship.
The pony also gave him his first completed story good enough to be read aloud by the teacher … It was even illustrated.
I can't wait to get out of this school so that I can have horses that change peoples lives!!!
He can’t draw a picture, add numbers, or write a story...Never could. And he knows it. Everybody he has ever met made it clear to him that he was beneath them, a loser. Even changing schools didn’t help. In the text books he is described as “learning disabled,” an “academic underachiever, ”or “hyperactive,” “manic,” ... or even just “trouble.”
Last fall, he met the first gentleman in his whole life who didn’t pass immediate judgment on him. He was a short, fuzzy fellow with large brown eyes and the kindness not to frighten an eleven year old boy.
So the boy slapped him. Then, he pushed him around and tried to hurt him, dealing with the pony the same way he dealt with everybody. But the pony’s kind eyes and patience had seen it all before. The pony gave the boy his first “over achievement:” his first turn at bat where he was doomed to success, and his first indestructible friendship.
The pony also gave him his first completed story good enough to be read aloud by the teacher … It was even illustrated.
I can't wait to get out of this school so that I can have horses that change peoples lives!!!