'Education is just not schooling. Education is a
process of sharing, developing, building, strengthening, encouraging and
recognising the abilities of people. Education is achieved through many ways,
and the person is central to all. Education shares and respects diversity. Its
aim is to enhance and enable the person to achieve his or her own goals’.
(National Disability Authority, 2014)
The goal of therapeutic riding is to encourage
education at the psycho-emotional level. Here, there is much learning
taking place without the participant being necessarily aware of it. The rider
is learning focus, communication, listening skills, empathy, interaction and
sensitivity. There is accompanying learning taking place within body systems,
facilitating greater spatial awareness, balance, co-ordination and stillness.
Sometimes it is lack of awareness of certain body systems that can bring about
delays in other valuable skills, such as socialisation.
The participant also has the opportunity to engage
in learning games with the help of visual aids, rhymes and stories, while at
the same time learning about the horse and their environment. The sensory
trail, in addition, provides great opportunities for learning and engaging
with nature, objects and the environment.
