Therapeutic Horseback Riding Offers Multiple Benefits for Struggling Young Girls

Therapists around the country are using a form of therapy that incorporates therapeutic horseback riding. Equine therapy sometimes uses therapeutic horseback riding to treat common mental disorders, behavioral disorders, and trauma in teens and adults. It uses horse physiology and psychology to help create emotional reflection and bring relief. Therapeutic horseback riding not only helps patients, but also helps therapists grasp a better understanding of better targeted techniques to fit a patient’s specific needs. An article by The Guardian, discusses the benefits of therapeutic horseback riding.

The Benefits of Animal Assisted Therapies

Dogs are already known to be valuable companions and help for individuals who are blind, deaf, diabetic and epileptic. It’s not surprising that therapists are evaluating the benefits that other animals could have on people suffering from multiple physiological and psychological issues. Therapists have started using therapeutic horseback riding with autistic children, adolescents with behavioral problems, and people dealing with depression or substance abuse. They believe that horses are mirrors of the human emotions because they are extremely emotional and intelligent creatures.

Equine therapy and therapeutic horseback riding can offer the following benefits:

• Identifying potentially unhealthy relationship patterns
• Practicing and establishing healthier reciprocal relationship patterns
• Building better emotional awareness and control
• Improving assertive communication skills
• Helping establish boundaries and respect for oneself and others
• Developing critical thinking and problem solving skills
• Boosting balance, coordination, and physical awareness
• Improving self-efficacy and self-care
• Fostering responsibility and leadership skills

Why is it effective?

Therapeutic horseback riding is so effective because it creates an emotional reaction from participants that reveals what most of their issues are revolved around. Most participants either express fear or love when first experiencing equine assisted therapy. Horses pick up on the way people are feeling, due to this they often mirror their emotions and responding. As an animal attuned to stress and body language, a horse with move away from an angry person, follow someone it trusts and be unsettled when it senses fear. It is extremely effective for people who don’t do well in counselling type therapies. It has been clinically proven that just being around horse’s changes human brainwave patterns. It causes us to calm down and become more centered and focused. The reaction from the horses, makes patients more aware of their emotions and inner issues. As Winston Churchill said, “There’s something, about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”

Asheville Academy Can Help!

Asheville Academy, a residential treatment center in a traditional school setting for girls 10-14, helps teen girls struggling with anxiety, depression and other emotional and behavioral issues. If your daughter’s worries about going back to school are more than just normal fears, consider sending her to Asheville Academy, a therapeutic boarding school. With a caring staff and a clinically based program, Asheville Academy can help your daughter feel comfortable with school.

For more information about Asheville Academy, contact us today at 800.264.8709