If prescribed or conducted by licensed medical or mental health personnel, therapeutic horsemanship sometimes can be reimbursed by insurance. It takes a special horse to suited for therapeutic riding programs. Without calm, predictable horses, therapeutic horsemanship would cease to exist, not only because there would be no horse to ride or work with, but the motivational factor that makes therapeutic horsemanship so different from other therapies would be gone. Horses represent many positive things and mental images to many people, and that is part of what makes therapeutic horsemanship so powerful. A place where you are unconditionally loved and understood by a large animal, a stroll in the woods for someone who can t walk, the time to be a proud princess or a brave knight, a sport, an ignition of all of your senses, or a place to make a friend who will carry you on his or her back.
Therapeutic horsemanship attempts to accomplish good for the body, mind, and spirit at one time.
An individual with profound cerebral palsy might have a private lesson with a teacher, horse leader, and two supportive side walkers there. Each lesson often is individually created, with a written plan and evaluation, and changes are made according to a students evolving needs and skill. Volunteers are a backbone of therapeutic horsemanship. They may groom and tack the horses, act as leaders and side walkers, serve as cheering sections, demonstrate a teacher s request if needed, and a thousand other functions both inside and outside the barn. It is their help and support as leaders and side walkers that help keep lessons safe, and their other offerings that keep programs running.