Week 14: How I Got to my Why

Growing up with anxiety when you gave no idea what it is or why you feel that way is the worst. You are constantly unsure of why you have the emotions you do. When no coping skills are learned you tend to obtain other mental illnesses such as eating disorders or OCD in your adult/teen years because you think some of those behaviors can mask the emotions being felt.

Confidence Building Exercise 

When we connect children with a wide arrange of mental illness to horses you can help them process what is going on in their life without rehashing out traumatic experiences. When I was in high school, my SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) was working with rescue horses and assisting with therapeutic riding. Since schools have been closed due to COVID-19 I have been able to spend more time doing what I love, teaching therapeutic riding lessons. 

Therapeutic riding and working with the younger kids on the farm is what made me want to become an educator. Watching a student pick their horse for lessons, canter their first lap and conquer things in the saddle that they didn't think they could is the best feeling in the world to me

. It brings me joy that I get to work with students again on the farm again. 

What does therapeutic riding mean?

I work with a range of children from ages 4-18. Their first lesson is them picking the horse in the field. We do meditation in order for the horse to pick the patient. A horse will pick up on body language and personality. When we relax ourselves and open ourselves up to other a horse picks up on it and will come to you. Once the patient and the horse have chosen each other we can then work on trust building, confidence, focus and much more through leading the horse through patterns. Each day we have a goal of what we want to accomplish or realize through the work with the horse. Doing this will help add coping skills to the patients tool box as they overcome challenges with the horse. We can look at why and how we overcome those challenges and connect it to challenges in our own life.

My clientele?

Walking patterns in theraputic riding

I am currently working through the program with 4 individuals. I have some who just started and are picking their horses and some who are getting into the riding stages of therapeutic riding. At the moment everything is by appointment in order to cut down on people at the farm during the pandemic.

Connection to my student teaching internship?

I became an educator to help students who are at their lowest points realize they can. I want to turn the "I can't moments" into "I can moments." I realize these opportunities will not necessarily be my daily routine throughout my career but, is a main reason I wanted to pursue education. Working with my clients I am picking up signs of different metal illnesses and understanding how the brain of that child works. By having this information I can better help students in my classroom who might need a little extra motivation to get going.