Educational Benefits of Therapeutic Riding:
·
Remedial Reading - Before one can read, it is
necessary to recognize the difference in shapes, sizes, and even colours. These
can be taught more easily on horseback, as part of games and activities. There
is less resistance to learning when it is part of a riding lesson. Through the
use of signs placed around the arena, letters can be taught, and reading of
individual words by word recognition can also be learned. Games involving signs
for “exit”, “danger”, “stop” etc., help to teach important life skills
involving reading.
·
Remedial Math Counting - Is learned by counting the
horse’s footsteps, objects around the arena, or even the horse’s ears and legs.
Number concepts are gained as the rider compares the number of legs on a horse
to the number of his own legs. Addition and subtraction are taught through
games involving throwing numbered foam dice and adding or subtracting the
numbers. Because the concepts are taught through games, resistance to learning
is decreased.
·
Sequencing, patterning and motor planning -
Something as simple as holding and using a pencil requires a great deal of
motor planning. Knowing which comes first in a sequence of events is an
important part of most activities. These and other similar skills are taught on
horseback though the use of obstacle courses, games and activities.
·
Improved hand eye coordination - Hand eye
coordination is necessary for such skills as writing. These skills are taught
in various activities and exercises.
·
Visual/spatial perception - This includes our
awareness of form and space, and our understanding relationships between forms
in our environment. Included in this area are directionality (knowing right
from left); space perception, which allows us to differentiate between items
close in shape but spatially different (i.e. “h” versus “b”); form perception
(i.e. differentiating “h” and “m”); figure ground (picking out an object from
the background); and visual sequential memory (such as remembering symbols in a
particular sequence or pattern). Both reading and math concepts involve visual
spatial perception. Visual spatial perception improves as a natural result of
control of the horse. Additional exercises are done on the horse to increase
ability in this area.