Serena grooms the horse with a smile.
It's one of the things she likes to do most when she's with them.
She also likes to bathe them.
Feel her presence up close.
That does him good.
She rides and hopes to do it as a sport when she grows up.
Serena has diminished vision.
She sees 10 out of 100, meaning that her eyes only see at
very short distances
.
She is very shy at first but when she gains confidence she speaks with great ease and grace.
The horses in her life represent a special channel that helps her navigate the world.
Today she is 13 years old and has been doing equine therapy since she was very little.
Her vision problem prevented her from being able to navigate normally, since she could not see around her well.
Her doctor recommended to her family that she undergo treatment with horses to
improve her motor skills and physical abilities
, as well as her emotional ones.
And the result, after many years of treatment, is evident and exciting.
The horse that brushes with a particular technique is called Cork.
A short breed, very useful for cases like Serena's.
He is meek and is trained to
allow himself to be manipulated
.
Constanza Núñez - a graduate in Occupational Therapy and coordinator of the Triada Therapeutic Horse Riding center - explains that horses help children like Serena to better manage their bodies and also stimulate their learning.
"They learn many things. Something that seems simple like brushing
stimulates their memory
. Because we teach them a particular technique for brushing and bathing them. We also use five different types of brushes. They have to remember that. So when Serena comes, I ask her things so that she remembers what she learned.
Serena has low vision and uses the horse to improve her physical dexterity.
Serena is diagnosed with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, which is a rare disease.
"We stimulated her from a very young age. We bought her an iPad to stimulate her vision and they recommended that the first thing we had to do was put her on a horse," says Sol Castignani, Serena's mother.
"With that she was able to better manage the balance of her body, the depth, the sense of distance. This therapy helped her a lot to feel safe in space. On the horse she began to know the sensation of what it is to move quickly and jump. All this gave him security for the rest of his life," he adds.
Serena has been doing equine therapy
since she was five years old
.
Once a week, in Pilar, she goes to Triada to take care of and ride horses.
Negrita was the first horse she had to take care of.
"He is the one I loved the most. He is the first one I met," says the girl.
She says that in her house she has two dolls, one stuffed and one plastic, which are replicas of Negrita.
In addition to horseback riding, he also
skis and swims
.
Look,” says Serena, “she takes out her cell phone and shows this reporter a video of her skiing in Bariloche.
"That's me and ahead is the teacher. He shows me the way and I follow him," she says as the images go by.
Brushing and bathing horses is what Serena likes the most.
The mother explains the achievements achieved with this therapy.
"In a new place, like when she went from kindergarten to school, she knows the terrain like a horse does and once she knows it, she handles herself very easily."
She tells that she once fell from a horse.
"She experienced that she fell but she immediately got back up. Because she is not afraid of those mistakes, she understood that they are part of life."
She assures that the
bond with the horse
is key because that sympathy that the boy achieves with the animal makes her much more sensitive, who perceives the need of the other.
Serena has a normal life.
She goes to a double-day English school and plays sports.
"She does everything except ride a bike because of this balance thing," adds Sol.
Equine therapy
Horse therapy is very standardized.
These days and until tomorrow there is an exhibition in La Rural.
It has experts in human and animal health, social equine therapy, equestrian sport and education, and representatives of different institutions and experts from Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile
Equine therapy is divided into three areas:
hippotherapy, therapeutic riding and sports riding
.
"What we do at Triada is use the horse as a therapeutic facilitator for children with disabilities," says Constanza.
The system includes health professionals with the horse in the arena and the patient on top of the animal.
"Hippotherapy is for more severe kids, who can't stand up."
and she explains that using the horse it is the living being that has the gait most similar to that of a human.
"When these kids ride, that stimulates neurotransmitters and helps them develop their motor skills," the teacher details.
This therapy is enabled by a
medical order
.
And it can be for any age.
It is not necessary to be on top of the horse either: "You can do equine therapy only by taking care of the animal," clarifies Constanza.
She highlights that it is important that the horses are trained and also that the professionals in charge of this therapy belong to both the health area and also understand horse riding.
"What usually happens is that they put any patient on any horse. It has to be a horse of a certain height. What we use are short horses that accompany the patients by their side while they ride."
Constanza has been training Serena for ten years.
Constanza details that before starting therapy she must ensure that the horse is tame and has good biomechanics because "I want it to transmit a good motor pattern."
P.S.