Hippotherapy Experience Paper

When applying for a position at a job, managers always check to see how much experience you have in order to check if you are qualified. When filling out a college application there are always questions that ask to write down any extra curricular activities you participated in or any clubs/service work you did and for how long. It is important to be a part of the community and to be dedicated to one or two locations for a certain amount of time to show commitment and effort. A student that has been a part of an organization for about three months and has not missed will be prefered at a college than a student that goes five times a month. Community service does not only help build relationships but allows students to spend their time learning new skills and it will benefit them in the future. Community service for high school seniors should be mandatory because it will teach the students how to be responsible, allow them to explore in depth something related to their career and improve their communication skills.

Service in the school and community is an insight to your character and work ethic. I have over 20 hours of community service from many different experiences. Last summer I worked for Camp Barakel, a summer camp, in the kitchen. I assisted in serving food and cleaning. I learned discipline and teamwork through this valuable experience. Not only this I’ve worked with the Elderly in Rehabilitation centers and the patience and nurturing qualities is something that will forever be valuable in my life. Last but not least working as Big Sister or Buddy to a 4th grade girl has given me the chance to positively impact and influence her life as simply as having a friend is immense. All of these service opportunities as added to my character and prepared me for the responsibilities of

During the summer of 2016, I volunteered as a summer intern at a therapeutic horseback riding organization, We Can Ride Inc. They offer therapeutic horse back riding, therapeutic ground lesson working on personal care with the horses, equine- assisted psychotherapy but, most interestingly they offer hippotherapy, equine assisted occupational therapy. My time with We Can Ride Inc. confirmed my desire to work in a helping profession, in a hands on way with clients to make their lives better. During my eight weeks with We Can Ride Inc., I was so impressed and excited by the progress I was able to see in the clients that I worked with. There was not only physical progress, but

Encouraging students to engage in meaningful, sustained community service and get involved in causes that speak to

Hip replacement surgery (Total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total hip replacement (THR)), has become one of the most successful and cost-effective medical interventions since its introduction and development in the 1960s by the British, Sir John Charnley, an orthopaedic surgeon.1 Sir John Charnley established the fundamental principles of hip arthroplasty and his design concept of prosthesis is still used in nowadays.

When we went to the community clean up we had to clean a dog park. One school cleared and painted on the parking lot. While our group conformed to yard work by the dog park. The work may have not seemed important but it was. I believe the way we take care of our community is another way we show how we treat our neighbors and friends. We were working together, laughing, listening to music, and play at the park when we were done. In fact it wasn't that hard with a barren area but near the end we were deprived of water. I'm not sure if its plausible we made much of a difference but it did make difference between the freshmen and sophomores

Helen Thompson once wrote, “In riding a horse we borrow freedom.”[3] People have always been astounded by the magnificence of horses. They were always seen as majestic, free, strong, and loyal. It was at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 that Liz Hartel admitted that riding a horse helped her recover from polio. Soon after her speech, in the 1960s, therapeutic riding centers were created in Europe, Canada, and the United States. It was also during the 1960s, that the horse was used as an adjunct to physical therapy in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria; and the practice was named hippotherapy. This concept quickly made its way to the United States, and the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) was created in 1969. Thereafter,

Before high school, community service never crossed my mind at any point during my life. Going to public school, I knew that nobody cared about service and since I didn’t have to, I never did anything for my town. Thirteen year-old me had only 3 things on my mind:

A continuous debate that is currently receiving much attention is whether community service should be a mandatory graduation requirement. Preparing students to effectively function in the real world is an important aspect of our education system. Today more than ever, there is an emphasis on having experience before beginning work. Most jobs are now focused on looking past your resume to see what you have given back to the community. Nevertheless, it is important that schools focus on preparing college students for the work force by mandating that they receive all of the necessary exposure and experience. Numerous schools across the country have mandated that in order for their students to graduate, they must complete a predetermined amount of community service. In Maryland, high school students are required to complete a minimum of 75 hours of service in order to graduate. However, this decision has resulted in a lot of mixed responses. Advocates of this decision stress that mandatory community service opens doors for students, while the opponents feel that it takes away valuable time from students who need to focus on their education. I believe that gaining experience outside of school is critical for future success in life. To ensure that students are prepared to transition smoothly from school to work, they need to be involved with the community while in school in order to build the leadership skills that are necessary to succeed.

In addition to current therapeutic intervention, there are some modern therapies which are used in the rehabilitation program.

According to Hannah Yterdal, an equine specialist, interacting with horses can produce favorable physical, psychological, and emotional impacts on humans (Equine Connection web site). Thus, horses have an important role in the therapies, because of their ability of making excellent connections with humans, and producing favorable benefits by interacting. Horses can help disorders such as mental, physical, physiological, emotional and speech. Another condition that makes them a favorable therapy option is the similarities of behaviour that we have. For example, humans and horses enroll better surrounded by others. We work better with others than isolated, we are made for social interaction. Society and people nearby us have impact on our personality

coordination and balance, these effects were observed in less time compared to the conventional physical therapy (PT). Specifically, McGibon et al (2009) observed reduction of increased muscle tone.(McGibbon, 2009). For this reason, we understand that hippotherapy is more cost efficient and offers a better long term profit. Finally we come to the last point is the large number of therapists needed for making a single session. But on the other hand, we have the creation of new jobs and thus cost efficiency.

"The term hippotherapy means treatment with the help and use of a horse." (Meregillano) Hippotherapy uses the movement of the horse to challenge the client. With that being said within this following paper is it going to go into more depth about hippotherapy. Not only is it going to go into depth about hippotherapy, but also how the study of hippotherapy works, how it helps people, how it is used, the benefits, and the type of individuals that are needed to perform hippotherapy.

Moraes and others (2016) found in their study that the children who had been participating in a hippotherapy program had better functional ability compared to their own pre-treatment ability. This was measured by the completion of a standard questionnaire by the parents of the children. While this essentially makes the parents the data collectors for this portion of the study, considerable bias is removed by using a questionnaire with specific self-help tasks and daily routine tasks which the parents then rank based on their child’s ability to perform said tasks with or without assistance. This makes the data more dependable and more acceptable to the scientific community in general.

Kids and teens in school these days are told to work hard to benefit their future. There’s so many options for colleges and careers. Sometimes it’s hard for students to get recognized by colleges even if there academics are amazing or you're a stellar athlete. These students are missing a piece, community service.