Horse Sense

I love going to see my two grandsons in St. Petersburg, FL, (a place where the saying is, Be Prepared to Be Pleasantly Surprised, and  I've never been let down on this). With one I demonstrated how to get the advantage when playing basketball by tickling your opponent’s armpit. It works great when I’m playing my very ticklish, energetic 4 year old grandson, Jude.  

I also got invited to go on a field trip with another grandson, Shane, to Noah’s Ark, a farm in Odessa with about 30 autistic kids and their teachers and parents. My son Paul teaches these kids and he selected the ones that would ride with me and warned me that along with autism can come some unexpected disruptive behaviors. I assured him that I’d driven him and his siblings and friends around so I could probably handle it.

Noah’s Ark is pretty much a petting farm with lots of farm animals and a couple of huge tortoises. We stayed mostly on the ten acres that are home to the main house, barn and animal pens, bathroom, pond, and picnic area. The surrounding acreage is the range for the horses and other animals that need more room to run. Farmer Ben greeted us upon arrival and set up the ground rules, petting all animals is allowed, hand washing is required after each petting area, keep hands and fingers out of all animal mouths, and no chasing. We started with brushing and petting goats and sheep and progressed around through chickens, ducks, geese, bunnies, pigs, tortoises (yep, we got to pet them too) and finally got to the horses. I love horses and although I’ve had limited experience with horses I've always felt comfortable around them and up to this point had good rapport with them. This time started out no different. I looked into the eye of one of these intelligent creatures and he looked at me as if to size up my intentions. He nodded his head to me once and allowed me a quick pet to his neck. Then he walked away, ignoring me completely, as he headed straight for the children that were gathering at the fence. I was in awe at how in tune the horse was to the needs of these special students and their instant connection as he remained steadfastly at the fence allowing the kids to pet him and even putting himself in reach of the smallest of them, so much so that I later confided to my husband that the horse didn’t find me special at all. He said, “Teachers are special in a different way. They are the rare folks that also sense the needs of special people and children.” I think he was on to something. Maybe teachers of have horse sense too. I also discovered that Farmer Ben’s Noah’s Ark farm is a foster home for children with medical needs. Kudos to all of the people that with unconditional love and horse sense help make our world a better place for these special kids and thanks for all they do.

As far as disruptive behavior goes, the trip went off without any unless you count the hay throwing during the hayride. I wasn't surprised by it, my son, Paul, the teacher, was the instigator. He started it!