Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

1)      My essential Question is, “What is the most important benefit a child with special needs receives through equine assisted therapy?” My best answer is the movement of the horse is beneficial to the patient. Hippotherapy is unique because it incorporates the horse into the treatment process. There is no other therapy that can compare. Without the horse, the therapy would be just like any other strategy. The horses walking gait is exactly the same as a human’s walk.  If there were no horse and no benefits of the horse’s walk, my other answers would not exist. This is why the movement of the horse is my best answer.

2)      I began the year interested in doing my senior project on something to do with horses. Because horses is such a broad topic, I wanted to hone in on a certain area. I didn’t know what I wanted to specialize in at the time, however. I later heard about hippotherapy. I looked into it, and I really liked what I had heard about it. So, I decided to proceed with hippotherapy being my final senior project topic. My essential question came to be, “What is the most important benefit a child with special needs receives through equine assisted therapy?” My three answers that I came upon were, the movement of the horse is beneficial to the patient, hippotherapy provides relaxation through a relationship with the horse, and hippotherapy provides postural improvement. Through a process of elimination, leveling out the pros of each answer, I finally decided that my final and best answer would be that the movement of the horse is beneficial to the patient.

 

3)      One problem that I faced was finding a mentor. Once I decided I wanted to do hippotherapy as my senior project topic, I really had trouble finding a center close by. This is because at the moment, hippotherapy is not that popular, and there are few hippotherapy centers in California. After searching and searching on the internet for places I could do my mentorship at, I finally just got lucky and someone I knew knew someone who worked at a hippotherapy center.  After explaining my senior project and hippotherapy to my aunt, my aunt mentioned that she knew someone who worked in the field. I was in contact with that person, Melissa Hidden, right away. Another problem I faced was that I did not receive my data for the science experiment in time. I resolved this problem by coming up with another experiment and performing it.  It was not as strong as my initial experiment, but I completed it on time. If I were to rely on my other experiment and hope the data would come in time, I would have been sorry. My data would not have come in time.

 

4)      My first and most important source would have to be my mentor, Cassandra Sanders-Holly. Cassie is a licensed physical therapist and a professor at USC. She helped me arrive at two of my answers and would always be open and willing to help me with whatever I needed. It was really great having her there. I got more information from her, than I did any other paper article that I read. My second important source would be the American Hippotherapy Association. I found several helpful articles from their website. From what hippotherapy is, to who it is used for, it can all be found from their website. It is also the official website for hippotherapy.

5)      My product is that I developed a relationship with the patients and children at my mentorship. I really feel like I connect with many of the patients who I see during hippotherapy. I also have developed a strong relationship and friendship with my fellow volunteers, horse handlers, and my mentor. I think the relationships that have been created have the potential to carry on for many years. Because I have enjoyed my mentorship so much, I plan on continuing to volunteer at Leaps and Bounds after the school year.