I live in an area north of Boston where there are many horse farms. I have begun contacting them to talk about starting a hippotherapy program and have been pleasantly surprised at the interest. One farm is owned by a woman who has a son with disabilities -so she has a special interest. Now the trick is to combine- a suitable horse, warm and friendly farm/owner and staff and a nice riding environment-preferably with an indoor arena and trails. It will be a challenge but well worth the time and effort to operate my own business and work closer to home. It seems that hippotherapy is growing in popularity and more and more horse farms have at least heard about it.
Barbara
HorseOT.com
Friday, March 19, 2010
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Hi Barbara, I wish you good luck with search. It is a very saticfieing (??, I hate being dyslexic) job, working in hippotherapy. I love it, although it is hard work, just to see the children improving makes it all worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteJA
Thank-you Jane-Anne. I love hippotherapy too but am trying to work in a setting where I have more say in how therapy works. I think that things will work out well.
ReplyDeleteHi Barbara, I know what you mean. Everyone has their own thoughts on how hippotherapy should be done.
ReplyDeleteI am very lucky (in some ways), that I have my own farm. So I am my own boss. But it also means that I am committed to my farm and animals 24/7. No holidays for me.....in fact the last 'break' I had was when I had a delivery by C Section 18 months ago!!!!
Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. It is my chioce to have this sort of life.
I am just informing you as a friend (which I hope we are) that having your own horse(s), is a lot of hard work. But very rewording.
jA
Many therapeutic riding centers have developed rubrics to help them make decisions on which horses are best suited for this work..... It is the most challenging aspect of doing this work. If yyou ask, they will share!
ReplyDeleteThank-you Debra,
ReplyDeleteI am working with an excellent therapeutic riding instructor who owns two of the therapy horses. Part of my certification with the American Hippotherapy Association centered on teaching us what to look for in a good therapy horse and I like what I see!