Blog 16: 2 Hour Meeting Answer #2

1. What is the most important benefit a child with special needs recieves through equine assisted therapy?
2. My second answer is: Hippotherapy provides relaxation through a relationship with the horse.
3. Some facts are:

• The heart rate of the child drops when he/she is on the horse, compared to when they are off of the horse before the session.
• Studies have shown that some children are calmer and quieter when around the horse.
• Hippotherapy takes the patient out of the traditional clinical setting and places them into a more relaxed atmosphere in order to help meet their functional goals. They are in a natural environment, which may help integrate their needs into everyday life experiences. Children, who are sensitive to being "different" do not consider the riding environment to be a clinic.

4. I found this information from discovernac.org The National Ability Center has a list of different opportunities and activities people with special needs can take advantage of. The website gives information about each of the different opportunities and activities.
5. I plan to continue my study of answer 2 by doing further research into how and why the horse and therapy relaxes the patients.

Blog 15: independent component 2 plan

1) for my second individual component, I plan on doing an additional 30 hours of mentorship at leaps  and bounds therapeutic riding.
2) my plan will meet the 30 hours because I am just doing additional time at my mentorship. I will go twice a week instead of once a week.
3)my component relates to my EQ because it is hands on learning. I will understand the benefits of equine assisted therapy first hand. I will also be able to ask my mentor any questions that come up, bettering my understanding.

Blog 14: Independant component 1

Literal
(a) I, Amber Meek, affirm that I completed my independant component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Sheri Meek (909)988-2000

(c)https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsEoEBm8As4OdENCc2dBYmlQNmhlWFl4WEhLcGJxLWc

(d) For my first independant component, I focused on bettering my riding on my horse. This included going to shows and competing with people my age and practicing at home or at a park. One thing I did was I attended a show and my placings weren't as high as I would have liked them to be. I then took the judge's comments that she left me and I read them over. I went home and read them over again, this time practicing what I did wrong on my horse. I repeated this process multipule times until I achieved an outcome I was striving for.

Interpretive
I was not able to upload pictures onto my blog. There was a problem when trying to put them up and it would not let me post the pictures. I have many pictures of me and my horse at shows, practicing at home, and also at the park. I will work on uploading my pictures as soon as possible as soon as I know how to fix the problem.

Applied

 

Ginger and I at a horse show

 

I gave ginger a bath after I practiced riding her.

Ginger and I at a horse show. We were participating in the trail class. We got 1st place!

My cousin and I were taking a break after a long day at a horse show. 

Ginger's all ready for the Christmas parade!

Practicing at the park with my fellow riders.

Ginger and I in a showmanship class.

The component helped me understand the foundation of my topic better because it really opened my eyes as to what I was doing wrong and what I was doing right as a horseback rider who competes in shows. It taught me that you can't forget the little details when competing in shows because the judges will notice and your score in the class will most likely suffer because of it.

Third Interview Questions

1) What is the most important Benefit a child with special needs receives through equine assisted therapy?
2) Do you have any ideas of what I can do for an activity during a presentation I will be giving?
3) What are the factors to consider when doing hippotherapy?
4) Does age of a patient matter?
5)Why do you use different horses for different patients?
6) Does age of the horse play factor?
7) What are the effects that hippotherapy gives to a patient?
8) Is it better to use a bareback pad rather than a saddle?
9) Are there different techniques that you use for each patient? Or is it just one technique for all the patients?
10) Can you recommend any sources or books I can use for further research?

Blog 13: Rough draft of 30 Minute presentation

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsEoEBm8As4OdFJFdjlGOTA5Z0hzdDd0WFFWb09rYVE

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 hours check

1) I am doing my mentorship at a facility called Leaps and Bounds. Leaps and Bounds helps disabled children by hippotherapy. Hippotherapy is a physical, occupational or speech and language therapy treatment strategy that utilizes the horse's movement.

2)My contact is Casandra Sanders-Holly.

3) My total mentorship hours are about 25 hours.

4) In the 25 hours of my volunteering, I have side walked with the children while they are on the horse. The purpose of this is to make sure the children are safe and don't fall off. I have also helped get the horses ready to ride. I have groomed, brushed, and saddled the horses.  I have also set up and put away the equipment we use.  I recently have even gotten to lead the horse in a day of therapy sessions.

Blog 10: Seinor Project Update

1) What are you currently doing in your independent component?

• I am currently working to complete my independent component. My independent component is currently working at the hippotherapy center where I have been doing my mentorship.  I plan to exceed my 50 hours of mentorship so I can also count it for my individual component.

(2) What is a recent piece of research (article, interview, or audio-visual) that have you reviewed you would say was significant in helping you understand where to go next in your senior project? The piece of research should be something you reviewed in November. Please explain what you learned and where are you going next because of this piece of research.

• A piece of research that was very valuable to me was the AHA Approved Curriculum Level 1 Article that I found on the American Hippotherapy Association website.  It was very helpful because it helped me understand what hippotherapists have to go through to become certified.  I will now continue to research the different criteria needed to become certified.  I will also use the American Hippotherapy Association website to help further my knowledge.

(3) Provide evidence from your independent component or the piece of research as something you recently did. For example, a photo of something you working on for your independent component or your notes from the video you watched.

• My computer would not let me post a picture onto my blog. But the article is part of my research so it will be in my research binder for proof