11/23/10 - AN EXPERIENCE TO REMEMBER

I was hired to teach an on-line class for Rochester Community and Technical College this fall called Equine Therapy Concepts. This class covers all types of therapy utilizing horses such as Hippotherapy, Riding for the Handicapped, and Equine Assisted Learning and Psychotherapy.  Since I received my masters in the field of Human Development and Equine Assisted Life Coaching, the head of the Equine Science department thought i might know a little about the subject.  Well, I guess that useless master's Degree has finally come in handy!

Part of the class requirements, since it is an on-line class was service learning - learning by volunteering at local therapy site/s in the area for a minimum of 10 hours.  This allows them the hands-on experience that is so important in the comprehension of this work.  However, one can talk Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) or Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) to death and no one can comprehend the work until they experience it first hand.  Well, recently i met up with another person in this unique field, Ray Anschel from On Track For Life (www.ontrackforlife.com), and started a conversation.  Turns out, he has been helping another local woman, Kit Muellner, of Hope Ranch (www.hoperanchteam.com) who is a licensed social worker, and has been doing this work for years. They have been setting up 'mock' clients recently to teach her intern about the work and getting the experience.  This girl is also an equine science major at the college.  Well a few of my students and i went to her barn on Tuesday night to experience EAP.  All in all it turned out that I had the opportunity to help my students get a better understanding of the work and in turn helped another student get the experience she needed for her internship.  All with just the start of showing up for a demo at another friends house!  The fate of the universe!

We are planning on talking soon, that maybe we can make this a part of the Equine Science program at the college.

If you want to learn more about this incredible work that i have the pleasure of doing, please check out these sites:

http://www.equineguidededucation.org/
http://www.taoofequus.com/
http://www.okcorralseries.com/
http://adventuresinawareness.net/
http://www.eahae.org/
http://www.e3assoc.org/
http://www.eagala.org/