Equine Assisted Therepy for children....

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MrsMagoo

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Hi all, just wondering whether anyone had any experience of using ponies for equine assisted therepy??

Last year we rescued a small coloured pony which my company are sponsoring through the charity we run. The charity is based around children with disabilities so our aim orgininally was to get him going and donate him to a childrens riding school. He has been through specialist training but sadly we dont think he will be suitable as a ridden pony at the schools as he is a) only 11hh and b) quite a quick little mover lol. He is being ridden by 2 young girls at present and jumping/pony club etc.

So now what we would like to do is offer families from the childrens home/charities we support the chance to come down the yard for a few hours and interact with him - he is 100% to handle on the ground and loves cuddles etc.

Obv this would be in my own time at weekends but as it's for a good course, I would like to try and see something through. I am currently drafting a letter to send out, but would be nice to know of any of experiences??

Thanks
 
What a lovely idea!

Of course, the pony has to be incredibly tolerant of all kinds of movements and noises, and you need a leader and side walker, no matter how quiet the pony might be.

I have only had experience as a volunteer side walker, but I can tell you it is the most rewarding thing.

One of the young girls I was helping did not talk and she walked around with her head down all the time. After one of her rides, she was standing to the left of the horse, by the saddle, and he turned around and gently wrapped his neck around her.

Next thing you knew, she was gleefully shouting "He hugged me!" I thought she was going to sprout wings and fly into the air with happiness. I thought I would too.
 
We do equine assisted learning with our horses and ponies. It really is a great thing to see how well it works to help children, and even aldults too. It sounds like your pony might well be suited to this sort of work, so it might be worth contacting someone involved in EAL. http://www.equineassistedqualifications.com/index.php?
option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=25&Itemid=53
This website might interest you.
 
Thanks for the replies and ill look into various training.

I mean as I'm not a qualified therepist it would just be fairly straight forward, allowing them to touch, groom lead the pony etc. I'm not thinkign along the line of rides so much as he is fairly small. Could do walk lead reins with the right sized children.

Thanks
 
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