Therapeutic Horseback Riding Benefits: Abigail’s Story

February 10, 2008

Not only are horses friends, companions, and partners, they are also miracle workers. Just ask Abigail Hucker, a young dean’s list college student who wasn’t expected to live past the age of seven. Thank you to Roger and Vickie Hucker and Freedom Hills Therapeutic Riding Program for allowing me to share her story of amazing healing on horseback. This is just one real-life example showing that therapeutic riding benefits are real, no matter what issues you are dealing with.

When our youngest daughter, Abigail, was six months old she went into the hospital with bronchitis. Obviously we didn’t expect her to be in the hospital too long, a few days at best as she received antibiotics and stayed under an oxygen tent. My wife, Vickie, stayed at the hospital with Abigail all day and all night, sleeping on one of those horrible hospital cots. So that Vickie had some time away from the hospital I would go to the hospital after work and relieve her while she went home to be with our other two daughters, shower, and rest some. On one particular day I went to the hospital and expected to find my wife eager to head home for some rest but when I walked into the hospital room I found her leaning against the wall crying with two friends of ours talking to her. The mood was very somber and one of our friends told my wife, “We better leave so you and Roger can talk”. My first thought was that our daughter had passed away and I quickly looked over at the hospital crib, seeing our six month old daughter in the bed relieved me of that worry; but another was about to be raised.

That afternoon one of the nurses had noticed that Abigail’s eyes didn’t track correctly when a light was shined in them, so they had performed a CAT scan of her brain. Just moments before I walked into the hospital room my wife had received the results form the scan. Our daughter had suffered major brain damage, 95% of the right hemisphere of her brain was dead. The brain cells were still there but they were dead. At the time we had no idea what this meant and after a short discussion and a lot of hugs my wife headed home while I stayed with our sleeping daughter. A little while later someone brought me the films of the CAT scan and I was able to see the brain damage; even I, a layman, could easily see the dead brain cells. In fact it was as easy as seeing dark from light. You can imagine what it was like sitting there in the hospital that night, or being at home, as my wife was, wondering what was next.

When you have a child diagnosed with a life threatening issue it’s amazing how fast things happen. The next day we had more doctors and specialists studying our daughter than you can imagine. Social Services was one of the first to visit with us in the morning. And of course many more test were run. I don’t remember if it was that first day after we’d been told this devastating news or the second day, but it didn’t take long for Social Services and the doctors to tells us the bad news. The prognosis was Cerebral Palsy and that Abigail would never talk - we’d never hear her say “mama” or “dada”. She’d never laugh, never crawl, never walk, never smile. She’d never enjoy music or clap her hands. Basically she’d live like a vegetable rather than like a human. We were strongly encouraged to put her in an institution because caring for her at home would be much too difficult. And, we were told, she would only live 3 or 4 years.

We refused to do anything but take our daughter home and give her the best life we could, along with our love, for as long as she lived, even if that was only going to be a few years. When she was young it wasn’t difficult to care for her, she was small and easy to pick up, carry, bath, etc. But we wanted more for her and when she was only two years old my wife’s cousin told us about a therapeutic riding program she had heard about. This program used horses to provide therapy to people with disabilities; so we called the program. I think it was the next week when we drove to Freedom Hills for the first time and little Abigail sat on a horse with a group of helpers and she rode around the ring. She smiled.

Abigail, who wasn’t expected to live but a few years is now 21 years old. She is a junior at Edinoboro University of Pennsylvania. She’s on the dean’s list and is a member of the honor’s fraternity Phi Sigma Pi. She loves music and is studying journalism and mass communication so she can become a news reporter on a TV station. She can’t drive but she uses a wheel chair to go to her classes from her private apartment. We thank God for all He’s done for Abigail and we know the hundreds of prayers that were said on her behalf were answered. We also know that Freedom Hills was one of the answers. Abigail rode at Freedom Hills until she was about 17 years old and just too wrapped up in school to find the time to ride. She likes to go back to Freedom Hills and ride when she’s home for a holiday and last fall she went to a therapeutic riding program in Erie for the first time. We know that Freedom Hills played a big part in making Abigail what she is today. It was the physical therapy, the emotional support, and the love she received while riding that helped turn around a horrible prognosis.

Roger & Vickie Hucker

If you have a story of how therapeutic riding helped you or changed your life, please email me at jackie@regardinghorses.com and I will consider sharing your story on this blog.

Posted in Making a Difference, Therapeutic Riding