BENEFITS

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS

Research shows that students who participate in riding can experience physical, emotional and mental rewards.

For individuals with impaired mobility, horseback riding gently and rhythmically moves their bodies in a manner similar to a human walking gait. These riders can experience increased balance, muscle control and strength.
Individuals with learning or intellectual impairments are motivated by riding to increase concentration, patience and discipline. If a psychological or emotional disability is present, the unique relationship formed with a horse can help improve interpersonal relationships. And, as is expected, ALL riders can benefit from increased self-esteem and coping skills.

Our riding program offers special needs children, from 4 to adult, the chance to experience horseback riding. This experience is not possible for children with disabilities without specially trained instructors, horses and equipment.

For any child, mounting a horse can be exciting and little frightening. Children with disabilities are less fearful and more adventurous when given the opportunity. For these children horseback riding can be a door to a new world. It is an opportunity for them to leave behind the world of wheelchairs, crutches, special classes, tutors, doctors, hospitals and medicine.

A half hour on the back of a horse is often more effective therapy than the best educational or medical minds can deliver.

Sir Winston Churchill once said There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man/woman.

This is More Than Just a Pony Ride

This experience has multiple opportunities for students to increase physical skills, social skills and communication skills. Students develop muscle strength, balance and coordination during riding. They have the opportunity to develop increased communication skills and increased positive social interaction with their riding team. The thrill of riding a horse is an accomplishment that is immeasurable to students that have difficulty with mobility, self-control and/or communication. We have watched students who, at the beginning of the program, could not sit upright on the horse progress to independent riding. Parents report students have increased muscle tone. Instructors report students progressing from nonverbal status to voluntary greetings and conversations with horses and riding team members.

In the United States, quality of programming and accreditation for over 600 centers is monitored by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA), a non-profit service organization dedicated to promoting therapeutic horseback riding for people with disabilities. The benefits include the opportunity to:

• Develop recreational, educational goals
  
• Enhance social skills and trust levels through special effects of the human/animal bond
  
• Improve sensory integration skills
  
• Lengthen attention span and concentration
  
• Improve posture, balance, coordination, flexibility, and normalize muscle tone
  
• Increase self-confidence and self-discipline
  
• Promote responsibility and cooperation
  
• Build self-esteem through challenge in a success oriented experience
  

Our therapeutic riding program provides healthy exercise to individuals with disabilities by allowing them to participate in the sport of horseback riding in a loving and rewarding environment. However, there is much more to therapeutic riding than the pleasure of the ride, which is inherently physically exciting. We know that therapeutic riding offers the following:

• Improves balance and coordination
  
• Provides passive stretch for tight muscles
  
• Replicates a muscle movement pattern like that of walking
  
• Improves posture
  
• Strengthens muscles by encouraging muscular response
  
• Increases awareness of one's body in space
  
• Stimulates the vestibular, nervous and circulatory systems
  
• Improves range of motion

All these measurable physical benefits come without the rider even being aware of what is happening. The benefits are not only physical in nature or reserved for individuals with physical disabilities. There are emotional and psychological benefits as well. Therapeutic Riding reinforces standards of behavior such as:

• Teaches trust through the rider/horse bond
  
• Teaches problem solving skills
  
• Increases self-confidence and self-discipline
  
• Teaches the use of patience to control the horse
  
• Enhances decision making skills
  
• Promotes responsibility and cooperation
  
• Increases the ability to focus and stay on task
  
• Provides an increase in self-esteem and pride
  
• Instills a sense of accomplishment

Horses are non-judgmental. They provide a strong shoulder to lean on and they do not shun people who are a little different.

Horseback riding may also benefit students having difficulty with school lessons. School subjects, such as learning colors and numbers and right/left discrimination are often incorporated into the riding lesson. Our greatest pleasure is when the student learns that horseback riding is fun. Most of the time, the students do not even realize that they are learning much more than just how to ride! What they learn in their therapeutic riding lesson is often carried back into the classroom without the students ever realizing it.

The benefits of Therapeutic Horseback Riding have been medically documented, but statistics alone cannot fully describe the true value of this service. The look of confidence, pride and achievement on a rider's face when he or she has successfully completed a task is the most obvious and visible proof of its value. To put it simply, Therapeutic Horseback Riding works. It is physically, emotionally and mentally rewarding and the benefits it reaps are truly a happiness every rider will remember and cherish.