Judy Houry changed the lives of children with disabilities
JEDDAH: There will be many a tear shed when Judy Houry leaves Saudi Arabia on Friday.
Throughout her time in the Kingdom, she has changed the lives of children with disabilities and brought comfort and hope to their parents.
Nineteen years ago she established Open Skies, the only therapeutic riding establishment for disabled people in the Kingdom that uses horses for healing.
“The movement of horses is exactly like the movement of people, so for someone who is physically disabled and in a wheelchair when they’re on a horse, all their limbs and organs are moving as if they themselves are walking,” said Houry.
“It tones up the muscles. Those who can’t be upright on a horse lie on it. That opens up the chest so they breathe better and all their muscles get used. Physically it helps their bodies.”
Houry had to travel to Texas in the US to receive training and certification in hippotherapy, a form of physiotherapy using the movement of a horse to replicate the sensory and motor output of the human pelvis in walking.
She first came to Saudi Arabia in 1973 and fell in love with the country, finding a sense of belonging among the people of Jeddah.
For all the good she has done in the Kingdom, she has been made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), and has been given a medal by Queen Elizabeth “For God and the Empire,” as the medal states, for her service to the community.
Houry and those who work with her, most of whom are volunteers, insist that her legacy will continue after she leaves Saudi Arabia.