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The 49th annual Missouri Fox Trotter's Show has been taking place throughout the entire week in Ava, Missouri. For one teen from Utah, competing in this event has been a dream come true. KSMU's Greg Leuthen reports.
Some people breed horses to compete in shows, others just ride them occasionally for fun, but all of them can agree that, in at least a small way, horse riding is therapeutic.
But no one has to tell that to Dallin Story.
Doctors diagnosed Dallin with Cerebral Palsy at a very young age, forcing him to participate in a lot of long, painful physical therapy. That is until his family heard about Hippotherapy, which as Dallin's father Stephen Story explains, is a more comfortable form of therapy performed on the back of a Missouri Fox Trotter.
After Dallin's father realized how important horses were to his son, he opened his own ranched named Stephen's Fox Trotters after the horses that he says make his son and others with a physical handicap capture the feeling of what it would be like to walk without any pain. This is because fox trotters have a similar gait, or manner of walking, to that of humans.
Stephen Story hired Lisa Hahn along with three other horse trainers to work at his ranch. Hahn has worked with Dallin during his Hippotherapy for almost 9 years. She explains how much horse riding has meant to Dallin
Dallin has already competed in two events this week at the Missouri Fox Trotters Show, and he performed quite well.
Dallin says he loves spending time with his dad on their trips to various riding events, but he also enjoys a few other things.
Dallin and his horse, "Touch," will compete in two more events tomorrow morning at the Versatility Arena in Ava, Missouri, before heading back to Utah to see his mother and 6 siblings.
