I am so honored that my son Nicholas was chosen to be the 2010 Theme Child for Personal Ponies! I'm also really proud of my son and his accomplishments. In May of 2001 my son Nicholas was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder; my husband and I were devastated. Like most parents of a disabled child, we began to educate ourselves and start therapies, Speech, Occupational, ABA, diets, nutritional supplements, you name it, we tried it! Having a child with a disability is not only physically and emotionally overwhelming it is also financially burdening. In 2007, I learned of the Personal Ponies program through a friend, and fellow mother of an autistic child. I was so excited to find something that I thought my son would enjoy and that was also FREE! I had no idea how amazing the program would turn out to be.
When we first began working with Ms. Sandra and her troop of ponies, I thought, this is never going to work out. Nick would barely touch the ponies, and Sandra had to hold his one hand, while I held his other hand so that he would not run away. Week after week, the same result. What made matters even worse is that there was a soda machine at the farm that Nicholas would obsess over. This made it extremely difficult to keep Nick on task. When Nick didn't get his way he would scream, and cry and run away. Each week I thought we were going to be kicked out of the program, his behavior was horrible, but Ms. Sandra greeted us each time with a smile.
One day Ms. Sandra thought we should try something different. We took Cookie for a walk to a neighboring park that had a lake and a lot of green grass. He let Cookie graze on the grass. Nick was very calm, and did not try to run away. From that day forward Nick was a different boy at the farm, he made a miraculous bond with Cookie (Magic and Sugar too!). He stopped running away, and he actually asked to muck the stall! He sings songs while brushing his pony and cleaning the hooves (pick, pick, pick, and brush, brush, brush!). It is so heartwarming when Magic lets Nick sit on his back. Nick closes his eyes and just hugs him.
Nicholas has made a tremendous improvement since we started seeing the ponies! We are so blessed that Ms. Sandra somehow knew that he would make a special bond with her ponies. Thank you so much for never giving up on us!
