Gymkhana & Jonas News

Last week, Jonas was able to take part in his first ever Gymkhana. The term was new to me but in essence, a horse race. It was part of the therapeutic riding he has been participating in since October. Jonas loves to ride his horses ("horsies" according to him) and was excited for another opportunity. The race aspect didn't really click with any of the participants and I'm glad about that, it was just a fun afternoon.


Jonas was assigned Thumper. Thumper is the manic-depressive horse. He either won't take a single step or goes crazy and is hard to control. That morning? Depressed. That afternoon when Jonas rode? MANIC!

Jonas was all smiles as the horse ran around and was a bit difficult for the leader to reign in. There is always one person to guide the horse and two people to make sure Jonas is safe. This was not overkill today! He needed everyone there just to keep him safely on Thumper.


The race began and sure enough, and thanks to Thumper (ahem...I mean thanks to Jonas and his fine jockeying skills) he came in first every time. Jonas was giggling because Thumper was going so fast but then the rain began to fall on the tin roof. This spooked Thumper who went from being slightly difficult to control to out of control. They got Jonas off quickly...

Jonas after his dramatic rescue!! :)

Thumper was then walked around the track a few times to calm down and once he was, they put Jonas back on. I was surprised and scared but too far away to do much. Jonas however was so pleased to get back on his horse, not at all frightened.


Thankfully, Thumper behaved the rest of the time and Jonas was so pleased to get his ribbon/rosette and medallion. It was a really fun event to participate in!


In other news, we feel that lately things have been going really smoothly with Jonas. He is walking at school in his walker, increasing his vocabulary, maneuvering well in his wheelchair and has had a record of no hospital stays in the past year. But we are afraid that our "cruise control" is over for a time.

Beginning in April, Jonas started dragging his left foot when walking. His foot became more difficult to place in his orthotics and he became less stable when sitting. After talking with professionals and not getting very far (long story made incredibly short but includes one opinion that he has reached his full potential and is starting to decline!), I started piecing things together and realized it could be a symptomatic tethered spinal cord. I won't go into details here, but if you want to know more about what it is, click here. Anyway, I emailed his PT from Maryland (our most valuable resource for Jonas!!) as well as his neurosurgeon at Hopkins and both agreed this was a possibility that should not be ignored. So, we have spent the past week or so trying to coordinate the various appointments and tests needing to be done. It looks like we are headed to Maryland in August and if Jonas needs the surgery, we will be staying a while. Clara has to be back for school beginning in September so if we aren't ready to head back all together, Devin will bring her back. It is going to be interesting balancing Jonas' needs and potential hospital stay with a nursing baby but I trust that it will all work out - it always has.

This isn't exactly what I had envisioned for our summer but we feel so blessed to at least have the opportunity to get the best care for Jonas. Of course we hope he does not need this surgery but if we don't rule it out we'd never forgive ourselves. Within the past 2 weeks Jonas has begun saying "hurts, back" and points to his scar. This came out of the blue - he had not heard us talking about his back at all - and the frequency of his complaining is increasing so we are anxious to get some answers. We just wanted to let you - our friends and family - know what was going on and ask for your prayers!