What is Hippotherapy

Last year, our friends organized an amazing event called Crest on Cruisers to help pay for Charlie’s hippotherapy. This year, we’re paying it forward by raising money for a wonderful little girl named Halle. So to help people understand what hippotherapy is, I put together this little video showing Charlie’s lessons and the progress he's made. Enjoy!


What is Hippotherapy? from Joe Myers on Vimeo.

Hippotherapy - Getting Started

Charlie had his first two hippotherappy sessions at Park City's National Ability Center. As expected it was a bit of a challenge with so many new things at once. He didn't like the required helmet, so he fixated on that right away. But he LOVES his horse, Captain Brownie. Captain Brownie is small and fuzzy and amazingly patient. He moves slowly and reliably on verbal commands and he's extremely interested in Charlie.

His sessions are in an inside riding ring which has many adaptive considerations, including a ramp to a loading dock, so Charlie can walk up to Captain Brownie on his own. That ramp also leads to a sliding, mechanical harness which allows the staff to load disabled adults onto their horses. Charlie got to watch that procedure and thought it was pretty cool.

Charlie's first two sessions have been tough because of the equipment, and because his therapy requires the hands-on attendance of professional therapists with whom he's still becoming acquainted. So Sarah and I have to watch from outside the ring. But that's ok, because the staff members at the NAC are patient and kind, and they're very sweet to Charlie. So he'll come around.

We're excited for Charlie's next session this weekend, and Charlie gets excited when we mention Captain Brownie. We're so grateful for all the generous help from our friends and families. Thank you to all those who participated or donated to Crest on Cruisers. We're so lucky.

Here are the pictures we've managed to snap so far.

More Pictures »

Crest on Cruisers Recap

Thank you all.

We cannot express how grateful we are for everyone's generosity and thoughtfulness in putting together Crest on Cruisers. The event was fun and silly and it raised about $3,000 for Charlie's Hippotherapy. We have been overwhelmed with the support of this amazing community and cannot thank you all enough. We received donations from friends and family, and even some strangers. We made new friends and had a wonderful time. Charlie doesn't realize (yet) what an amazing community surrounds him and awaits his every heroic step. We can't wait to post updates from his hippotherapy sessions. But in the mean time, enjoy these pictures from the event.

For those who were not able to attend, we appreciate your thoughts and generous support. We look forward to paying it forward next year in support of other families. We are truly amazed by the support we have received.

A special thank you goes to Chris Petty for conceiving of and organizing the event. Also to Stacey Zavadil for creating the website promoting the event. We love you guys.