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2011
Riding Session Volunteers:
Nichole Barnes, Claire Bokelman, Austin Durst, Jennifer Durst, Terri Gauby,
Matt Keller, Letha Nelson, Rosie Steel, Ashley Stewart, Sharon Stohs,
Traci Turner, Trent Turner, Jolene Woerner, Justin Woerner, and Kevin
Woerner
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Benefits
of Therapeutic Horsemanship (TH)
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Improves balance, endurance, range of
motion, and strength with exercises designed to be done on a horse.
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Provides
overwhelming feelings of accomplishment and achievement by allowing
the rider to learn skills and master tasks.
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Builds strength,
stability and friendships through the persons handling, care and
riding of the horse.
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Heightens the
sense of awareness, enjoyment and capabilities of each rider.
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As many as three
volunteers help each rider: horse leaders help with guiding the horse,
side walkers aide with balance and everyone helps with mastering new
skills and tasks.
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Almost every
person with a disability can benefit from therapeutic horsemanship. We have
seen benefits to our riders with cerebral palsy, mental retardation,
autism, brain injury, stroke, learning disorders, socialization
problems and emotional problems.
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By partnering
with horses, TH does the following: nurtures the mind and body with
activities that are fun, strengthen the community by serving it and
provides opportunity where few exists.
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Potential physical
benefits to people with and without challenges are improvements in
balance, muscle tone, range of motion of joints, respiration and
circulation, digestion and metabolism, and fine and gross motor skills
or in the reduction of muscle spasticity and abnormal movement
patterns.
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Potential
educational benefits include the improvement or enhancement of focus
and attention span, verbal and communication skills, comprehension and
memory skills, sensory integration, visual spatial perception,
differentiation of visual aids, hand-eye coordination, use of both
sides of body and sequencing of events.
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Potential
psychological, social and development of life skills such as
communication, verbal and non-verbal skills, self-discipline,
patience, self-esteem, respect and trust, and the realization social
relationships and successes.
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Using horses to
help give people a better sense of self-worth. A chance to take
responsibility and control over another living thing and the fact that
a horse is so big and strong gives all equine activities added power.
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It offers people
real experiences that present challenges, relationships and
opportunities to feel alive. |
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