Hello!
I seem to be getting into a good groove with hippotherapy. I had my third day yesterday – and it was very eventful! I did my first intake- which means I met a child for the first time and had to decide whether she needed therapy and what kind (hippo with PT, OT, SLP,) or aquatic therapy. It was a little overwhelming at first. But- as I observed her- I realized it’s really no different than what I do in an orthopedic setting with my clients. Now, I didn’t break out the goniometer or anything- but I was able to take a step back, relax and figure out what I needed to look for in terms of sensory issues, and fine motor issues, etc.
I also did my first evaluation. This means one of the therapists did the intake at one point and decided this child needs OT on the horse. I was the first therapist to get him on the horse. I thought it was going to be a lot scarier- but it actually went extremely well! He did awesome- and I must say I was impressed with how I handled the “new” experience!
The only negative thing that happened to me- was that I had a tall child (on the spectrum) on top of a very tall horse. The child got mad about me asking him to do something- and he kicked me right in the chest (maybe as hard as he could)- but I was happy with the way I handled the situation. He was very good the rest of the session.
One thing I should tell everybody too- which I learned in the course I took was that sometimes you will find in hippotherapy- a child may give you everything you are looking for in the first 5 minutes of the session. Technically, after this point, the session should end and you should take the child off the horse and go do something functional. However, the obvious problem with this is that a parent will not pay for a 5 minute ride.
I had this experience on Wednesday- I had a child on the horse- and he did awesome for the first 15 minutes. The last 15 minutes- I lost him completely- and undid the entire session. It was disappointing- but, like I said, a parent won’t pay.
On the other end, however, sometimes it takes 15 minutes for the child to adapt to the session- and then the LAST 15 minutes – you get exactly what you needed. This is just one of the challenges in this field.
So far though, I am really enjoying it.
I also am loving my full-time job in orthopedics too. The nice thing with ortho- is that you get LASTING RESULTS. The patient can eventually be discharged because 9/10 times they do very well in rehab.
Comments?
Hi Annie,
I find that the 30 minute session is never long enough! There is so much to work on and just riding without demands is therapeutic, providing the sensory stim that the child needs. I find that a lot of children improve in posture and focus during the first 20 minutes and then are able to do better following directions to do a more demanding activity. It sounds like you found that out already. It took me a good year to feel confident in what I was doing and you will learn a lot on the job, but I will suggest here that you think a lot about reward and behaviors. If they understand- reward with an activity they like after they do what you want, I often use the trot as a reward and playing ball. I really don’t understand what you mean by a 5 minute session. Perhaps what you mean is that you need to learn how to make the full therapy session valuable and therapeutic and that will come with practice .
barbara
Horseot.com
horseot.blogspot.com
Thanks for your comments Barbara. You have a great website! Yes- I definitely need some time to get fully acquainted to what I am doing.
In the hippo course I took- the therapists were saying that sometimes they “lose” their kids attention because they get what they need in the first 5 minutes after the session. They were explaining how 30 minutes on a horse is a really long time for some kids – and can be unnecessary. While with other kids- 30 minutes is great!
I guess I will understand more fully as I become more familiar with using the horses.
It all sounds pretty exciting as a professional growth experience. The more you know, the more you can learn, because the building blocks become more numerous as your foundation expands. Facts start stacking up on top of each other; which gives the clinician a depth of knowledge. Thank you for the appraisal.