This is a simple idea that helped some riders at our barn. For riders who have problems with right and left, use colored wrist bands to designate which direction to turn. When you tell them which way to steer, you can use the colors in conjunction with or instead of the words right and left. You could … Continue reading
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Fun Video Friday: Assisted Mount and Dismount Videos
Happy First Day of Spring and Fun Video Friday! I’m excited to share with you some videos from Reins of Life that Amanda said I could share. All the videos can be found on their YouTube Channel if the links below don’t work. Mount and Dismount Videos from Reins of Life Mounts Croup Mount from the Block … Continue reading
EAP Articles by Jane Karol
Happy Monday! I have some good articles to share with you today. Recently I came across this great post – How Horses Can Help Change Our Self-Perceptions Then I discovered its author has written a whole series of great articles about EAP and EAAT – EAP Articles by Jane Karol Check them out, they’re really … Continue reading
Teaching Competitive Game Skills
A reader recently wrote me asking if I had any games that might be used to help her rider with autism who has a hard time losing sports games, to the extent it takes him several days to recover, and says he hates everything, that his horse is bad, and that he is bad. While I … Continue reading
Volunteer Management
When you first start teaching, it’s easy to fixate on your rider and forget the rest of the world. However, often your volunteers need just as much feedback and praise – if not more! So here are some notes on basic volunteer management. VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT The role of a TRI isn’t just teaching the rider, … Continue reading
Note Sheet for Observing a Lesson
This is a follow up to the post “Watching a Therapeutic Riding Lesson“. In that post I described what to look for when you observe a lesson. Now I am giving you a hand out to use for taking notes. It is especially helpful for Instructors in Training as they learn what to look for … Continue reading
Teaching the Skill 2.0: What, How, Why, Where
Updated 7/9/2018: the following is focused on using What, How, Why, and Where to teach the Skill of your lesson – it’s a nice “additional info” post to the Teaching the Skill post. There is also the Teaching Techniques: Hows & Whys post about using those as a teaching technique throughout your lesson. It’s very similar, but this post … Continue reading
The Impact of Horse Movement and Handling on the Rider
The following notes are from the 2014 PATH Intl Conference seminar “The Effects of Equine Handling on the Biomechanics of Mounted Human Subjects” given by Celia Bower, PT, HPCS, and Margo Dewkett, Master Instructor, of Windridge Therapeutic Equestrian Center of East TX, who has been utilizing hippotherapy for 10 years active in researching efforts to validate equine movement … Continue reading
Teaching Tips: Social Stories
Social Stories What A “Social Story” is a story used to model appropriate social interaction by describing a situation with relevant social cues, other’s perspectives, and a suggested appropriate response. Why Helps teach students routines, expectations, and behavioral standards in an alternative format (story, visual, etc.) Can be personalized to individual behavioral intervention Particularly helpful/popular … Continue reading
Your motivation for teaching
I think all instructors should ask themselves: “Why do I teach? What is my motivation?” Your reasons affect the type of instructor you are, your understanding of your role, the quality of your instruction, the focus of your lessons, your knowledge of skills, the types of students you work best with, how you interact with students, and your resiliency in hard times. … Continue reading