Nicolas Holbert rode Chaco around the stable enclosure, circle after circle, as physical therapy students held onto him on each side to keep his head stable. “When we were at the hospital, they basically said he would never be able to do anything,” his mother, Sara Holbert, said. Nicolas was nearly 2 when he fell in a pond and almost drowned; the incident resulted in cerebral anoxia, or a brain injury sustained from a severe lack of oxygen.