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SARATOGA SPRINGS — Colton Smith was a born a healthy child. His parents, Michael and Shawnee Smith, didn’t know that one day he would be diagnosed with autism.
“He never crawled for us,” said Michael. “He was a walker. He walked fast. So we figured he was doing exceptional. We were like ‘look at him!’”
Just a few years later the Smiths say everything changed. Colton rarely made eye contact and he rarely ever spoke to them.
“We actually thought he was deaf,” said Michael.
Michael and Shawnee say they felt disconnected to their son and it only got worse as he showed more and more bizarre behavior.
“He had a lot of sensory problems so he would lick everything,” said Shawnee. “And when I say everything, I mean the ground and cars.”
The couple took him to a psychiatrist, a pediatrician and a sociologist. All three diagnosed Colton with moderate to severe autism.
“(At the time) they were passing on a lifelong sentence on him,” said Michael. “We thought, ‘There’s got to be more than this.' It wasn’t about changing. It was about coping.”
The Smiths remember a point in time where Colton had not spoken to them for a year and a half.
"I said, 'Hey, Colton.' He made eye contact with me," said Michael. "I said, 'Where have you been?' He said, 'I've been here the whole time.' That was our defining moment. We had to pull over to cry."
One day, Shawnee suggested they take Colton to equestrian therapy. At the time, Michael was not on board.
“I said no way. What a waste of time. It’s almost like someone is trying to take advantage of hope,” said Michael.
Michael eventually decided to have Colton try it, but Colton did not enjoy riding the horses.
“He was hating it,” said Michael. “(He was) screaming for the first couple of months. At that point, we said, ‘Do we stop?’ But then I said, ‘I’m not doing this to my child. I’m doing this for my child.’”
Four months into horse therapy, the Smiths experienced a pivotal moment.
Colton started singing to a Disney song playing in the car. The entire family was dumbfounded.
“I said, ‘Hey, Colton.’ He made eye contact with me,” said Michael. “I said, ‘Where have you been?’ He said, ‘I’ve been here the whole time.’ That was our defining moment. We had to pull over to cry.”
“We didn’t even know he could talk,” said Shawnee. “He’s singing word for word. So we just stayed with it."
The Smith family attributes Colton’s success to equestrian therapy, specifically consisting of riding Missouri Fox Trotters.
According to Hoofbeats to Healing owner, Tamira Tanner, the horses are specially trained.
“These horses are really rare,” said Tanner. “It’s totally genetic. They move different. The elasticity in their joints is different.”
Tamira says the horses are meant to move as if a baby was crawling. Tanner associates that to the fact that Colton did not crawl as a baby.
“If you’ve had any sort of trauma your brain gets unwired,” said Tanner. “The horses move like you’re crawling.“
According to Tanner, the theory is that when a baby doesn’t crawl, their brain does not get “mapped” correctly.
“Whenever I ride the horses it makes me feel dizzy, but I know it is helping me,” said Colton.
The equestrian therapy is not currently quantified. Tanner hopes to quantify the change one day through a machine.
Although the Smiths are relieved to find an answer for their son, they are still frustrated about insurance not covering the cost.
“It’s extremely frustrating. (It’s like) it’s OK to drug the kid to mask the symptoms but not cure the problem,” said Michael. “But we’re not trying to take care of the symptoms. We’re trying to take care of the problem.”
Despite some doctors’ recommendations, the couple never put Colton on medication.
“The funny thing is most people have no idea (he was autistic),” said Michael.
“I’ve had people say, ‘But he wasn’t really autistic,’” said Shawnee. “He wasn’t really on the spectrum. I say, ‘I have the paperwork.’”
Today, Colton is officially autistic-free. Michael and Shawnee say they believe their son has a normal future ahead. While conquering autism is rare, it does happen to a small subset of people, according to two recent studies.
“My biggest dreams is to become either a paleontologist or a builder,” said Colton.
“He’s very optimistic and we’re very optimistic,” said Shawnee. “We think he has a normal life ahead of him.”
While the Smiths say equestrian therapy worked for their son, they don’t want to advocate that it works for everyone.
“Are we claiming that it cures autism for everyone? No. Did (equestrian therapy) do it for our child? Absolutely. How could I make his claim? The state diagnosed him. ... Now he’s not autistic anymore,” said Michael.
Colton has an anonymous sponsor who pays for all of his equestrian therapy sessions.
Michael and Shawnee Smith still do not know who that person is.
“We are so grateful for them, whoever that is,” said Michael.
“May God bless them in their life,” said Shawnee. “They’ve made a huge impact on ours." Email: jjacobson@ksl.com Web: Jen-Jacobson.com
