Why horses?
Why horses?
Horses are natural teachers.
- Horses are sentient beings and are a lot like us.
- Horses have distinct personalities and defined social roles within the herds, allowing students to identify and form connection with them.
- Because they are prey animals, they have evolved to be extremely sensitive to their environment and react to our body language and cues. That can give very good insight into what the student is experiencing emotionally during session.
- Horses allow movement.
Who is the team?
- An instructor; who is certified in Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) and is certified in the EAGALA model Horse Powered Reading®. The instructor oversees the clients' physical and emotional safety, along of that of the horses.
- Horses; the horses provide a natural judgment free experience. Simply being in the presence of the horse can open all different avenues. When the student feels seen and understood, without the threat of being judged, they become empowered which gives them a change to reflect and create new patterns of learning in a supported environment.
What happens during a session?ā
What happens during a session?ā
All sessions sessions are tailored to individual need. The content of each session varies depending on the skills being addressed.
As an example; the reading road. Through navigating with their reading buddy the horse, they must clear all obstacles by reading to their reading buddy. Often while reading, readers drift of and no longer know what they are reading. On the reading road it becomes obvious! When an obstacle is met (horse knocked obstacle over) the reader has to stop and leave the road with their buddy. The reader needs to come up with a new strategies in order to successfully get past the obstacle and get back on the road of reading.
Facilitators can then ask "What just happened?" and "How might that look when you are reading?".
Maybe the reader was forced to get off the road and had to circle back for a new start to get over the obstacle. Maybe the obstacle forced them to take a different route like asking for assistance or use a tool such as a dictionary.
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