GROVETOWN, Ga. - Some call the therapy magical after watching horses change the lives of their special needs children.

Nineteen children demonstrated skills they’ve learned while doing Hippotherapy for families at Maple Knoll Farm in Grovetown, Saturday.

The program is called the Blue Ribbon Riders.

Ten-year-old Sarah Houston is one of the special needs children receiving physical, occupational and speech therapy with the help of a horse.

“I did it,” Sarah shouted to her mother after she finished doing several balance and posture skills on her horse.

“She just loves the horses, she thinks they're great,” Sarah’s mother, Vicki Houston said. “She’s got horses all over her room at home so she kind of lives for doing the horse thing.”

Houston says she's seen a significant difference in her daughter since she started having the therapy two years ago.

"She was always confident, but she’s definitely more confident now. I think her physical skills have improved; she's definitely expressing herself more,” Houston said.

President of the Hippotherapy program at the Maple Knoll Farm, Claudia Morin has helped hundreds of children like Sarah enhance their skills since she started the special therapy 27 years ago.

"They grow, learn and develop ways they can't in a structured environment of the class room or in a clinical environment,” Morin said. "We call it ‘the magic of the horse.’"

Morin says she and her volunteers challenge the children by teaching them to move with the horse with out using their hands.

"They use their arms in certain ways so it challenges their posture and their balance,” Morin said. “It gives the motivation to reach beyond what they're capable of doing."

Houston says her daughter has a special connection with the horses.

"I think these kids with special needs have a unique sort of communication with them. It seems like they communicate with them,” Houston said.

“I think they’re definitely magical, the kids get such a glow being around them.”

Enrollment for the horse therapy treatment runs between $375 and $400.

For more information on Hippotherapy and the Blue Ribbon Rider program, call Claudia Morin at (706) 831-0129 or email her at cmorin515@aol.com.

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