soldiers

I read that horses were used for therapy in orthopaedic recovery processes in the early 1900s. I would be interested in reading more about this at another time. I am still looking for information about parent perceptions of therapeutic riding for their children. I took our small pony to volunteer for therapeutic riding lessons one summer. A parent of a child with orthopaedic leg braces and crutches told me that she wanted her son to feel the wind in his hair like she did when she ran as a child. She felt that the horse gave her son that experience given that he would not be able to run on his own legs. Working with her child, I noticed that he had one leg that was more stiff than the other when mounted on the pony (although he had difficulty getting both legs relaxed into the stirrup position). After a round or two on the pony, his stiff leg relaxed to such an extent that the stirrup needed to be adjusted several times. This young boy, age 5, showed some anxiety in the beginning of each lesson. He relaxed just minutes into the lesson and left with great smiles and hopes for the next lesson. Perhaps this is all his mom wanted from the experience - the joy of watching your child master a skill and be proud of himself or perhaps just to see the wind blowing his hair.

Beginning the equest

This is a new endeavor for me. I am interested in exploring the research around therapeutic horseback riding for children with disabilities and how their parents perceive the benefits. I have watched children ride and am involved as a Board member for a program. However, as a researcher, I am interested in how therapeutic riding has been approached from an inquiry stance, what has been researched to date, and how the data were analyzed. I will begin with a search of North American Riding for the Handicapped Association. NARHA.