“Oh, you got it!” she tells the boy who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome.
Wearing a wide grin beneath his helmet, Weston clips the rings onto his saddle, where a chain is forming, as the gentle 21-year-old horse named Sally continues the slow walk around the indoor arena at Bridge Riding for the Disabled in Lebanon.
The nonprofit organization helps disabled people find freedom through their experiences with horses.
As he rides, Weston is working on his balance, fine motor skills, speech and socialization.
“He’s having so much fun, he has no idea he’s working on those things,” said his mother, Angie Neubauer. She and her husband, Bob, adopted Weston when he was 20 months old.
Bridge Riding was founded 23 years ago by former special education instructor Jane Kellerman of Waynesville. When Kellerman died in September of breast cancer, board member and instructor Patricia “Pat” Howe couldn’t bear to watch the program come to an end.
The former corporate executive and her husband took control and built the riding arena on their 10-acre horse farm.
Howe remembers becoming hooked on horses when, at age 12, she received her first pony.
“I always had a love for them,” she said. Her eyes fill with tears as she talks about what she’s able to offer the children and others with disabilities who come here.
“The thing that gets into my heart the most,” she said, “is I can help them have the same experience I have had with horses.”
Keep reading: How the program helps the kids and how you can help
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