WILLOW CREEK RANCH INC

Notes from the nonprofit

Austin started riding Toby Horse in May of 2018, and in August, Austin got on his bicycle with training wheels and took off riding like he’d always been doing it! We truly believe riding Toby helped Austin gain the confidence and core strength he needed to balance on the bicycle and feel secure while riding. Before Austin started with horse therapy, he had never called us Daddy or Mama. He didn’t understand that a pet could have a name, and just called an animal dog, cat, or horse. As Austin progressed in therapeutic riding, he started learning that the other horses at the ranch each had their own names. He learned to remember and call them by name when he would see them during different visits. He eventually learned the dogs’ names at the farm and towards the very end of his sessions last summer, he did something had never done before, he called us Daddy and Mama. Before he started therapeutic riding, he protected himself from being overstimulated by keeping himself in a bubble.