What is Equine Related Therapy?

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Equine Related Therapy turns to account the power of horse-motivation.  It is used to change the focus from disability to ability.  The horse can be used to achieve learning and provide therapy.

 

EDUCATION THROUGH HORSES

For horse motivated people the horse is at the heart of the exchange of teaching and learning.  It is used as an alternative seat of learning and understanding.  Many naturally occurring routines and activities in a horse environment act as the basis of new understanding.  If horses interest and motivate an individual, then learning about them provides a learning purpose.  Many of the skills learned are proven to the learner through the two intrinsic values of the horse - the existence of visual feedback and the opportunity to feel.  This begins to build self-confidence and the learner becomes more able to learn much needed life skills through the medium of the horse.  For many people, if traditional methods of teaching and learning have failed to make sufficient impact, and if the individual is motivated by horses, to use the horse as a learning-teaching-medium, is logical and effective. In a riding school - or arena - a series of letters are used as markers.  These can become a first step of letter recognition and understanding towards building sounds and words.  Manipulating a horse from one letter to the other makes it easier to take up a pencil in the follow-up Wordpower session.  Riding shapes in an arena of specific measurement begins to open the door to an increasing understanding of numbers, shape and space.  Those who have felt defensive over being asked 3 + 3 feel comfortable with telling their teacher that 3 horses in that field and 3 horses in that field means they have 6 horses and thus their confidence increases. Feeding horses can become a matter of understanding weights and measurements, fractions and quantities - all concepts we assume that others understand but may in the ordinary way find too hard to grasp. Seeing leads to understanding.  As people develop their ability, so they can begin to respond to that ability by taking responsibility.  If looking after oneself has lost a point - or perhaps it's a skill that's never been developed - learning to care for a horse first can provide an incentive that becomes a personal achievement.  Learning to wash a horse's mane has encouraged many young people to become independent in their own hair washing.  And grooming horses leads to a new foothold for discussing personal care.                          CONTINUED