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Hyppotherapy Center "Centaur": Healing Horses

On June 4 our camp day was marked by the fact that a group of Sebastatsies went on an educational trip to the Centauer Center of hyppotherapy in the village of Ushi. It is the only specialized hyppotherapy center in Armenia. The founder director of the Center is Hasmik Hovhannisyan. Children having musculoskeletal and mental development problems are treated with hyppotherapy here.Other people or children may also go there just to learn to ride a horse. 

We got to Centauer Center in approximately an hour. The center of healing horses is situated on the highest terrain of Ushi. Our eyes were immediately caressed by field flowers and horses grazing peacefully; our lungs began absorbing the unusually fresh air; our ears felt the presence of puppies and dogs of different sizes and breeds running up to us twiddling their tails in a friendly way and barking. We were in nature. But, what a pity! Some of us were frightened by the dogs and asked the imployees there to keep the dogs away from us.  It is interesting: we go to nature and ask for the nature to be kept away from us.          

Anyway, we had gone there for the sake of horses. And now they are directing two saddled horses to us. One was brown, the other was white. Oh, nature , you are perfect just having only horses. It was an interesting situation. None of us had ever ridden a horse. Everybody wanted to ride but nobody wanted to be the first. Each of us wanted to be the second. However, two of us were brave enough to declare to be the first: Nina Hohannisyan and my younger brother Alex Hakobyan. Then all of us were encouraged and enjoyed the pleasure of riding a horse first. Indescribable are the minutes when you are sitting on the saddle and holding the bridles and riding the horse in the countryside, and that living creature obeys you, and you can control his movements.

That educational trip turned out to be the most exciting, delightful and unforgettable for me. After having said goodbye to the horses we went to see Saghmosavank Monastery. Were delighted by the beauty of the gorge of the River Kasakh and Saghmosavank: they were complementary to each other. At the end of the trip some of us decided to go in for horse riding.    

 The English translation by Susanna Avetisyan