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EQUINE ASSISTED ACTIVITIES

By Sandra K. Trousdale, Rotary eClub One

Recipe For A Smile, by Janet Franson

1.  Patient, experienced horse

2.  2-3 dedicated professionals

3.  Caring volunteers

4.  Human with significant life challenge

Mix professionals, volunteers, and horse in large arena.  Blend until skilled team forms.  Introduce human into mixture, gently bringing expectations from simmer to boil.  Add color, light and music to taste.  Sprinkle liberally with fun and love.  Smile may be maintained indefinitely with regular infusions from the hearts of devoted supporters providing equipment, time, skills and funds.  Recipe may be doubled

In Galt, California, USA on March 12, 2009 the first pilot session in therapeutic horseback riding took place with 6 horses and more than 20 students.  The program, Galt Horse Assisted Learning Enrichment Program (GALEP), is a collaboration between the Galt Joint Union Elementary School District and local horse lovers and is hosted on school grounds.  The horses are furnished by volunteers and are assessed for suitability by a volunteer horsemanship expert prior to being allowed in the program.  Because safety is the major focus in these programs, no actual solo riding is permitted until proper equipment such as helmets, mounting platforms, and fenced arena are complete.  Considerable funding is therefore required on initial start up.

The progress in Galt has been slow but steady.  Helmets have been purchased, an arena has been filled with sand, and a grant from Rotary eClub One and matching District Simplified Grant from District 5450 will soon enable installation of arena fencing.  In the interim, participants are learning about the horses, the equipment, and safety around animals.  They have been allowed to mount and be lead by walkers on school grounds, but have yet to experience solo riding and the true freedom this program is designed to provide.  Already, though, the bonds have formed and the transformation has begun.  The personal stories are boundless.  The “gang banger” who quietly brushes a horse for hours, the child with cerebral palsy who can suddenly sit up straight, the autistic boy who can concentrate and, of course, the endless smiles.  As the program expands with additional facilities and horses, the dream will become real and not just imagined and lives will be forever enriched.

Equine assisted activities involve therapeutic horseback riding used either as recreational therapy or hippotherapy.  The goal in recreational therapy is simply to teach someone how to ride.  Hippotherapy uses the movement of a horse as a treatment tool benefiting muscle health.  The rhythm of a horse’s movement stimulates the muscles as well as the brain.  

Therapeutic riding is governed by North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) in the United States and Canada and by the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) in England.  NARHA was founded in 1969 and provides therapy programs in the United States and Canada through its nearly 800 member centers.  Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, USA NARHA’s mission is “to change and enrich lives by promoting excellence in equine assisted activities.”  The association provides accreditation of its member centers and instructor certification as well as many educational opportunities.  NARHA’s 782 centers are primarily not-for-profit centers run by volunteers and dependent on donations from public and private sources.  The centers themselves often partner with other community organizations such as schools, rehabilitation centers, group homes, nursing homes, government agencies, hospices, and hospitals.

Lis Hartel of Denmark is generally regarded as the impetus for therapeutic riding.  In 1952, Miss Hartel won the silver medal for Grand Prix dressage at the Helsinki Olympics despite having impaired mobility due to polio.  Following this event, centers began to form in Europe, and shortly thereafter, the movement made its way to the United States and Canada with centers opening in Toronto, Ontario, and Augusta, Michigan.

Equine assisted therapy measurably helps many individuals with disabilities such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, retardation, autism, emotional disabilities, brain injuries, amputation, deafness, visual impairment, stroke, and cardiovascular accident.  It is a long list.  Benefits of the therapy include the ability to control personal movement and enable an otherwise shut-in individual to experience the outdoors with dignity. It also equalizes the abilities of the participants, allows competition, models positive personality traits, and facilitates postural control and balance.  Moreover, since bodily systems interact, positive change in one area will undoubtedly bring change to other areas so that improved physical function leads to improved emotional or spiritual function.

In the words of Dr. Rebecca Lewis:  “You are one with the horse.  It’s the life of your body that goes as energy through the horse’s body then down through the legs and back up again—you’ve become one.”

Therapeutic riding begins slowly.  Participants learn to touch, brush, and walk the horses prior to actual mounting.  Most participants will also be taught anatomy and care of the horses so that their experience will be complete.  Once mounted, there may be simple exercises such as leaning forward, leaning back, or twisting.  Riders are also assisted by walkers who make sure the rider remains secure.  The rhythmic movement of a horse’s walk stimulates nerves and the exercises increase mobility.  It is hoped that riders who begin totally dependent on their instructors will eventually become independent and be able to “go places” on their own.  They would have the power to do things and see things that they were unable to do before because of the lack of mobility.  All of these benefits cross over into other aspects of their lives as well.

The following poem by John Anthony Davis encapsulates this wonderful program:

I saw a child who couldn’t walk,

Sit on a horse, laugh and talk.

Then ride it through a filed of daisies

And yet he could not walk unaided.

I saw a child, no legs below,

Sit on a horse, and make it go

Through woods of green

And places he had never been

To sit and stare,

except from a chair.

I saw a child who could only crawl

Mount a horse and sit up tall.

Put it through degrees of paces

And laugh at the wonder in our faces.

I saw a child born into strife.

Take up and hold the reins of life

And that same child was heard to say,

Thank God for showing me the way....