We recently hosted an American Hippotherapy Association (AHA) Level II workshop at our Mt. Holly farm. Licensed speech, physical, and occupational therapists from all over the United States and as far as Northern Ireland were onsite for four days January 17-20 diving deep into hippotherapy as a treatment strategy. The workshop placed an emphasis on patient treatment and advanced equine knowledge necessary for Hippotherapy as an equine discipline. Throughout the four days there were lectures, discussions, collaborative work, and actual patient treatment that covered the following topics:
- Recognizing desirable conformation, soundness, and movement qualities of the therapy horse
- Training, conditioning, and monitoring of the therapy horse
- Understanding optimization of the therapy horse for a patient treatment
- Safety principles for the therapy horse and environment
- Educating and training staff and volunteers who will be working with the therapy horse
- Maintaining a safe, effective, and successful clinic program
We would also like to say a special thanks to Jim and Kris Middleton for all of the wonderful and beautiful photos in the gallery below. They came to the workshop to share with us their professional skills and create great memories in pictures.
