Anybody taken their children to horse boy camp (ASD)?

[clpsmum]

Thinking about doing this and wondered if anybody else had tried it and their thoughts on it

Ds does grouo tennis lessons. I would be happy to call it therapy because it is run by a coach that just 'gets it' (actually I've found a lot of sports people are able to get a lot out of Ds without requiring 1:1), and Tennis is actually the reason/excuse/focus for being made to practice group instruction, turn-taking, watching others, eaves-dropping etc.

It's just half an hour a week. I don't expect Ds will learn much tennis but it's much better value for money than those dire 'opportunity class' sessions we were once offered.

Home bird children might enjoy learning something where a tutor comes into the house like singing or music lessons?

He may enjoy singing starlight, but dont we ahve enough to deal with

His karate teacher came to the house to get to know him a little before he went to karate, ds2 was actually quite engaging with him before retiring to his room.
Its the going out thats the problem

God yes, sporty folk instinctively understand so much about shaping, fading, reinforcing, prompting and so on, within context of something purposeful and very often, group based.

Plus less focus on child speaking in an artificial context or manner.
If they do speak/communicate, the activity itself can be the focus.

My dd has got really into jigsaws and it's a very sociable thing to pore over it with a group of other people.

I like the idea of learning a language while doing something else such as cooking or hiking or sewing for the same reason.

At risk of sounding a bit brillo pad armpit-esque, I think the freedom a child with communication impairment gets from physical activity very liberating. Again my dd loves loves loves to bike and swim and bounce on the trampoline.

mymate my ds is very like yours, he goes happily to school and enjoys it but other than that he would rather stay at home. The only thing he does really love is horseriding but even that would I think have been a no no if we'd had to take him to an organised thing iyswim. We were very lucky to have the loan of the perfect shetland so we could take a more relaxed approach. He wasn't terribly keen at first tbh, mostly because we had to wrestle him into the hat! He found his balance surprisingly quickly considering he has trouble walking and frequently trips even when he was sitting bareback and awful mummy took a pic not realising flash would go off and pony would spin around and leg it he didn't fall off so I'm glad we persevered on something for once!
I'm not sure what I think about the Horse boy camps. At first I thought it sounded fab and that we could save up the £600 or so to go for a weekend in our own tent. Now I think we maybe wouldn't fit in, it all seems a bit 'worthy' for us, and I was concerned at pictures on the website of children not even wearing hats (though was glad to see Jimjam's boys were in her lovely pics). I don't know really. I think probably better for people who do not already have access to horses and don't already have to spend every holiday -freezing to death in a soggy tent! I guess I can see the attraction of spending time with other autism families and how that could be relaxing but we don't tend to be 'joiner inners' (wonder where ds gets it from? )anyway so not too fussed about that.

Thanks Pixel, its good to hear your ds has found something he loves. We live in the country and have taken him to horses on a friends farm, he did it cos we told him to have a go. We also went to riding for the disabled for a while, his physio recommended it as he also has CP, after the first couple of times & he knew what was going on he sobbed all the way there.
He like horses, just not enough to want to go or even go without a screaming fuss.
I guess he'll find something one day that will get him excited.
I'd happily go to anything & join in, ds2 on the other hand sees it as some sort of torture
£600 for a weekend OMG I'd want a 5star all inclusive spa weekend for that & then some, DH would need therapy if i told him we needed £600 to stand in a muddy field!

We tried horse riding lessons (1:1) at a stable that has lots of SN kids and adults. The teachers were wonderful and seemed to 'get it'. DS1 (ASD, three years old at the time) loved it. Can't say it made any difference to his ASD, but he did learn left from right!

I have met others who think it really helps their children (generally not ASD, but other difficulties) which is why we went along. All depends on your childs personality, learning style etc.. What's often nice is just to watch your kid loving something, whether they 'learn' from it or not.

The lack of hard hats is what makes it different really - in that they will bend the rules for autism. So for example ds1 couldn't (and I mean couldn't) wear a hat at all until he was about 8. Horse boy will bend those rules. He's fine with hats now, but we still have issues with gloves. Today the sea was warm but the wind was cold so I made ds1 put his wetsuit gloves on. He screamed as I put his hands in them - but did keep them on, it took about 2 years to get him tolerating gloves.

I think horse boy is great for families who cannot access holidays easily (villa with a pool would be a total no no for us unfortunately), and who have children with very severe autism who cannot go to regular riding stables. It's a very tolerant starting point for trying out riding and learning to ride. If your child is higher functioning then you have more options and probably don't need something as specialised.

One thing I'm not convinced about wrt to horse boy (especially now) is whether they can cope with older sevely autistic kids. Littlies definitely. Older, less challenging, probably, but older and severely autistic/very challenging- hmm I think you'd want to be asking a lot of questions before spending your money.

Whereas I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the surf school to even the most severely autistic/over 6 foot/very challenging child/young person.

Villa with a pool has been our most succesfull holiday.
We had to research to find the right villa. It was small, enclosed with its own small pool in full view, all surronded by a high wall & very private.

We were able to be self contained within our own little house, ds2 had the comfort of four walls around him & his things from home while we all enjoyed the sunshine & the taverna food who delivered
It did take alot of upset flights when ds2 was small to get him to be an OK flyer now though.
I cant imagine introducing flying to him now. I have also found airlines & airports without exception to be wonderfully helpful & accommodating

There is no way we could fly - too much waiting. We have made ferry trips but they're hard.

I worry about window locks and door locks as well in rented places, and I would worry too much about him getting into the pool unsupervised.

DS1 would happily go anywhere without too much waiting, he loves being away from home, but the supervision required is often at an unmanageable level. That's another reason why horseboy worked well for us. I think ds3 was 4 and ds2 7 when we went, but we could just leave the pair of them with the volunteers for hours at a time which meant that dh could pop out for shopping, and it was much easier to manage supervising him as there were two of us. So we could shower and things like that, which is often hugely problematic if we try camping (because one person can't supervise the 3 of them as ds1 just heads off).

We haven't really had a holiday for years, but I think next year we are going to have a long weekend, or midweek break at The Calvert Trust I've heard really good things about it from people who have been, and someone else will be doing the cooking, and it will be set up for ds1 (which means everyone else can have a good time as well).

It's not cheap, but will be worth it if it ends up being a proper break.

Jimjams, I understand what you are saying about the hats, and not having to wear them at camp being a bonus, but not having one was a risk I wasn't prepared to take. It was a long time before it took less than two of us to get the hat on him but I wanted him to know from the start that it was non-negotiable if he wanted to ride. Luckily he took to riding quickly enough that he would tolerate the hat while he was riding, although we had to get it off him the second he dismounted or there would be trouble. Nowadays he forgets he has the hat on.
Still can't get him to wear gloves though! .

I really think it depends on the child, how much riding they're going to be doing and what sort of riding. For horse boy most of the riding we did was walking (an occasional trot) in a western saddle with at least two helpers per horse, so the risk from not wearing a hat was low.

If it's a long term activity and you want to encourage more independence in riding then obviously hat wearing becomes far more important. We had to do the same really with surfing and gloves, ds1 cannot surf in the winter if he won't wear gloves. Now he understands 'gloves or no surfing' but before his language had developed to that level it was a case of doing the best we could iyswim. The first year he wanted to surf in the winter we had to give up because we could not get gloves onto him.

We've had one (touch wood) could have been bad riding accident in our family when ds3 was kicked in the head by a horse when playing in a friend's yard (sort of his fault as I had told him to keep away from that pony, but she span around to get him). I was VERY pleased he was wearing his hat even though he'd just been playing on a toy tractor, as despite flying through the air and having a bruised cheek from the second hoof he was essentially ok. So yes I'm a fan of hats near horses, but I suppose I think sometimes taking a view of things and relaxing the rules to allow participation can be the start. We would never have got ds1 into gloves for surfing until he knew he loved surfing iyswim, and it was luck that he'd developed enough understanding for 'gloves or no surfing' by the time he really really loved it.

I guess with holidays you ahve to weigh up if the stress of going on holiday is greater than staying at home, its no holiday if its harder work.
We are fortunate to live near the sea & countryside but when we sty at home it ends up one of us staying at home with ds2 & one of us taking ds1 out to do stuff so ds1 misses out on family stuff.
With flying we alway board last, we just push ds2 up & down outside or he paces up & down. The only time its been a bit problematic was when we flew from Luton & they asked everyone to wait on the tarmac to board but then kept us standing there for half hour, with the noise & wind etc ds2 was very distressed by the time we got on the plane.
It helps that ds2 has cp, so at best is only a very slow wobbly runner

Oh yes I was definitely hoping for a long-term interest. Dd isn't at all interested in horses so I was desperate for one of my dcs to be horsey! Dh can't object to equine expenditure if it's for ds's benefit .