Equine Therapy

South Eastern School District

Equine Therapy

"Teacher T-Bird"

October 21, 2015

I had the opportunity to visit with our SEIS students who are participating in equine therapy at http://equiteam.org/ in Dallastown once a week for an hour.  

An obstacle course to describe the journey

The students were asked to create a visual journey through the therapy experience with a “Beginning, middle and end”.  The students also identified and named the two horses either student or teacher and used a sticky note to physically label each horse.  Creativity and teamwork were everywhere as students constructed elaborate or simple visual journeys using whatever resources they could find.  But that was only half of the task...the other half was to get the student or teacher to walk through the journey with them.  I witnessed teamwork and process learning at it’s best.  Some students tried to take the lead of the horses,others looked for water buckets or favorite toys and some had to adjust their structures to allow the horses in.  

Students found it easier to move the student

At the end, students discussed their journey, the process,  and experience moving the teacher (bigger horse “T-Bird”) and the student (mini-horse).  Just as with the other group the students were focused, attentive and participated with a great deal of insight into why some things were easier than others.  All students agreed that the journey was well worth it and they were excited to continue with equine therapy in the spring.  Thank you Equiteam.

One group used just these three words to summarize their beginning, middle and end.