Three Benefits of Equine Assisted Therapy for Special Needs Kids

If your family has been blessed with a child with special needs, you are always looking for different options and ideas to help your child become stronger physically, emotionally, and socially. In addition (and perhaps at the top of your list of “must haves”), you want those new experiences for your special needs child to be fun and wonderfully memorable. While these dreams parents have for their children are certainly not exclusive to just parents of kids with special needs, the goal to make these dreams a reality for a special needs child is undeniably always a bit more complex and challenging to bring to reality. One experience for special needs children that has been shown through data to bring joy, confidence, and fun to the child while benefitting the child psychologically, physically, socially, and educationally is Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT). Equine Assisted Therapy, also called Hippotherapy, literally means “therapy with the help of a horse”. While the thought of watching your child being positioned atop a horse in trust that the big 1,500-pound animal will be gentle with your little loved one may seem scary at first, the benefits your child will experience abound.

Improves Muscle Control

If your special needs child has underdeveloped muscles, you might think that horseback riding would be the last activity they would be able to enjoy. Quite the opposite. Horseback riding helps enable sensations throughout the whole body. Equine Assisted Therapy helps children with disabilities get a chance to feel a sense of being in control of their bodies. The way a horse can sense its rider and move accordingly can aid in stretching and relaxing its rider’s muscles. This can help your child not only gain body strength and muscle tone, but also improve their body posture. When your child is horseback riding, their sense of balance improves, as does their dexterity and motor coordination.

Improves Confidence

Completing any new challenge or embracing any new experience always increases one’s confidence. For a special needs child, Equine Assisted Therapy helps the child experience perseverance – by not giving up although the experience is new, respect – toward other beings and animals, and confidence – feeling rest assured that riding on a horse could be done. Whether a child is able to continue on with regular Equine Assisted Therapy sessions or it is a wondrous, one-time experience, that sense of overall well-being and confidence level achieved remains forever with the child.

Improves Concentration

All first-time horseback riders will attest that riding a horse demands concentration and attention. It’s hard to think about anything else except the huge, 1,500-pound animal below you – with its own mind and sensibilities! For a special needs child, too, any other worries, stresses, aches, or pains seem to disappear and all focus rests, instead, on how they are sitting on the horse, how the horse sounds, the scent of the horse, and how it feels to move in rhythm with the horse. Further, by staying focused and listening to the directives of the professional Equine Assisted Therapists, special needs children are able to stay in the moment and get the absolute most out of the experience.

To have your special needs child experience many of the benefits of Equine Assisted Therapy, contact Reachout America. For nearly 20 years now, Reachout America has been helping kids with diverse challenges and special needs connect with equine camps across America.

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