Equine-assisted learning CURRICULUM
Curriculum overview
We are often asked, “What is the goal of your program? What are you trying to achieve?” These are great questions. With the new year, we want to remind our stakeholders of the answers to those questions and elaborate more about the what, why, and how of what we do.
MISSION
As you know, the mission of the Flying Horse Foundation’s Equine-Assisted Learning Program is to advance the long-term emotional wellbeing of at-risk youth in our community.
OUTCOMES/GOALS
Social science researchers have identified specific components of emotional wellbeing[1].
Gleaning from that research, as well as from the human-equine interaction principles taught at the University of Denver[2], we have identified five specific characteristics of emotional wellbeing that will drive our program content, outcomes, and goals.
C.A.R.E.S.
Connection, Awareness, Resilience, Empathy, Self-Regulation
A newly developed measurement tool will be implemented to help us assess long term student improvement in each of the five areas. The five characteristics may be easily recalled by the acronym C.A.R.E.S.
C - Healthy CONNECTIONS with animals, community members, and peers are precursors to developing and sustaining healthy relationships throughout a lifetime.
A - Building AWARENESS of how actions and behaviors impact those around us and learning how to use this awareness will help improve interactions with the people in the students’ lives.
R - Empowering students to learn from mistakes and persevere in uncomfortable situations builds RESILIENCE and paves the road to success at home, school, and in relationships.
E - Recognizing and relating to the feelings and situations of others, whether it is a horse, peer, or volunteer, creates EMPATHY and understanding in relationships.
S - Realizing that energy and actions affect others and influence how others respond to us is important in relationships. Learning to monitor these responses and adjust this energy creates emotional awareness and SELF-REGULATION, which is essential for emotional wellbeing. Each of our five months’ worth of weekly sessions will highlight two of the five characteristics described above.
Review Sample lessons
Click on the buttons below to view two examples of sample Equine-Assisted Learning lessons.
SESSION STRUCTURE
Our equine-assisted learning promotes the development of life skills utilizing an experiential approach to learning with equine-assisted activities. The structure of each session is designed to magnify the horse’s impact on helping students improve on the specified goal characteristic.
Each session will include similar, intentionally designed components, including:
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Trauma can create food insecurity issues, as food may have been scarce in the past. Issues such as neglect, food withheld as a punishment, poor nutrition, etc. may create challenges with food. By offering snacks (especially when coming from a full day of school), we hope to relieve any anxiety caused by food insecurities. We offer healthy snack options rather than sugary snacks, which may impact energy levels, and we monitor for food hoarding.
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Research shows movement increases learning and increases the body’s ability to focus. We utilize different types of movement, including Bal-a-Vis-X, balance exercises, and mounted activities, to help facilitate the learning and retention of program content. Movement may also be sprinkled in sessions when students are starting to get restless to help re-engage learning.
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When groups arrive, we take a few minutes to ask the students about their week and to assess what they may be bringing into the lesson for the day. This time can help facilitators know how best to utilize movement or teach regulation techniques before engaging in the activity with the horses.
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As there are seven different styles of learning[3], we strive to provide instruction for every learner. We utilize various activities at the start of groups to help meet all methods of learning and to get the brain ready to glean as much as possible from the equine-assisted activity later in the lesson.
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The main focus of our equine-assisted activity is to look for the opportunity to make isomorphic bridges (relating or making a connection between the activity with the horses to life skills and real-life situations). For instance, noticing a horse appearing anxious when a student is loud and moving erratically allows the student to start creating awareness of how their behaviors impact others. The facilitator can then make a bridge by asking, “Have you ever noticed other situations when you had this same energy? How did people react to you then?” to help the student start making these connections.
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At the end of groups, facilitators will check-in with the students to see where the students’ level of energy is as well as what the students took away from the day’s lesson.
What the E.A.L. Program is NOT
We have also learned over the 18 months that it is as important to identify what our program is NOT as it is to identify what it is as there are many different equine activities, each with a different purpose. We hope the information below helps distinguish those activities and enhance understanding of our program’s intent and limitations.
As an equine-assisted learning program, we do not offer equine-assisted psychotherapy. Equine-assisted psychotherapy must be provided by a mental health professional and is designed to address mental health and emotional issues outlined in a treatment plan tailored to the individual.
Even though our program does include mounted work after 12-13 weeks, students and parents/guardians need to understand our program does not provide riding lessons. Further, when a student reaches a point in the program where mounted work begins, it does not mean all future sessions will include mounted work. We have learned students must understand this fully to manage expectations and avoid disappointment and setbacks.
As an equine-assisted learning program that offers mounted activities, it is also important to note that we are not a therapeutic horseback riding (adaptive riding) or hippotherapy program. Adaptive riding provides horseback riding lessons to those with disabilities. Hippotherapy utilizes the movement of the horse to enhance the treatment goals of an individual as set by a Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, or Speech-Language Pathologist, who is present during the service.
Our team believes all of the other activities can be great complements to our E.A.L. program, depending on the student, so we have provided community information available upon request for your ease. Please be aware that our provision of such information does not constitute an endorsement of said services or offerings, and we encourage you to conduct your due diligence on any particular program to assess if it is the right fit for your child.
[1] Search Institute, www.search-institute.org; Peter C. Scales, et al. “Contribution of Developmental Assets to the Predictions of Thriving Among Adolescents” Applied Developmental Science 4 no. 1 (June 2010): 27-46. [2] Fry N.E. (2013) Equine-Assisted Therapy: An Overview. In: Grassberger M., Sherman R., Gileva O., Kim C., Mumcuoglu K. (eds) Biotherapy - History, Principles, and Practice. Springer, Dordrecht. [3] Intl. J. Appl Basic Med Res. 2015 Aug; 5(Suppl 1); S58-S65; Williamson, Margaret F., and Roberta L. Watson. “Learning Styles Research: Understanding How Teaching Should Be Impacted by the Way Learners Learn Part II: Understanding How Learners Prefer to Receive Information.” Christian Education Journal 3, no 2 (November 2006) 343-61.