Healing with Horses: King and Queen County farm teaches life skills to children with autism

KING AND QUEEN COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- A farm in King and Queen County is using nature and animals to teach life skills to children with autism.  

The Fox Moon Farm Project and its Healing with Horses program, aims to get children with special needs or trauma out in nature. This can impact emotional regulation, anger management and anxiety along with depression management.

Seventeen-year-old Matt joined the program two years ago when he was completely non-verbal. Now he speaks, follows directions better and gets in some driving practice on the tractor.

“One of the most powerful things that’s happened with Matt is he’s starting to learn language," said co-director of the farm and program director of Healing with Horses Cindy Freishtat.   

For Freishtat, Matt was the first non-verbal person she worked with and one of the first patients in the Healing with Horses program.  

“He’s just very special to me," she said. "Maybe it’s because he’s one of my first, I don’t know, but I’ve been working with him for quite some time.” 

Admittedly nervous about how she’d communicate with him, she soon found a language that works for him.  

“You have to find what attracts them, and I quickly learned that for Matt it was music," she said. “I started singing, and I started clapping and we started drumming.”  

At the farm, patients get to brush horses, help with barn chores and take a crack at gross and fine motor skills.   

“A lot of these kids need to be outside, they need to be in a farm environment, they need to be with animals," Freishtat said.  

According to a study done by the National Institutes of Health, nature-based intervention showed health improvements in children with autism -- however the gap in research on the topic is still large.  

When Freishtat realized Matt wasn't interested in horses, they started walking around the woods and stomping in puddles, all while singing.  

“When Matt would sort of go off into his own world or when Matt was feeling a lot of anxiety, if I clapped and we sang, I could immediately bring him back and get eye contact with him," she said.   

Freishtat said one of the biggest skills they teach at Healing with Horses is self confidence.  

“We were out in a big field, and I put his hands on the wheel, and I was like, ‘Let’s go,’” she said. 

Driving the tractor has been a self-confidence boost for Matt, and it means there’s a chance he could one day drive a car all by himself. Freishtat added that the work they do often shows up at home as well.

“To be a parent of a child with special needs is so hard on so many levels," she said. "And to see your child doing things that you never thought they might be able to do whether it’s speaking, whether it’s driving a tractor, whether it’s opening gates and following directions... you know what we do? We give them hope.” 

“Healing with Horses teaches life skills to children to set them up for the future," Freishtat said. "So whether you’re a child with trauma or you’re a child with special needs, we teach life skills.”  

There are two other programs under the Healing with Horses umbrella, including the Equine Elders and Adult Empowerment Program.

If you know anyone who could benefit from this kind of treatment, you can reach out to the farm at foxmoonfarm.org.