SERVICES
Therapeutic Riding
Therapeutic Riding is a recreational horseback riding class that is adapted specifically for individuals with disabilities. Riders will improve on their posture, core strength, and balance while also building confidence and independence in everyday living skills. Our class is taught with a riding instructor and side-walkers to ensure participant safety.
Hippotherapy
Hippotherapy is an intervention used by occupational, physical, and speech therapists. It incorporates using the natural movement of horses to help engage sensory, neuromotor, and cognitive systems. IWWH works with the provider of your choice in acheiving your treatment plan goals. Our horses have been carefully selected and trained for participant safety.
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) is a type of therapy used by mental health professionals to help improve social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral skills of clients. EAP does not necessarily involve riding, but will use equine animals in ground activities such as moving horse around and completing tasks. EAP frequently uses a group therapy setting but it is not required and can be done 1 on 1.
All of our therapy programs are offered through our partnered non-profit Henry Wrinkles Foundation
Horse Training for Therapy & Trail Use
Foundation Training for Trail Horses
All IWWH therapy and trail horses must complete our foundation training program. This program starts at birth and will continue up until the horses 4th year.
The horse must be able to complete each task to pass training. Tasks include, standing still for bath, clipping, and tacking, pick up feet easily, trailer loading, ponying horses and being ponied. Horse must be desensitized to all kinds of objects including tarps, noodles, balls, cars, bikes, and atvs, as well as loud noises like gunshots, lawn equipment, etc.
The horse will have at least 90 days under saddle with 60 being trail ridden. Completion of this program will certify that the horse shows competency in being an ideal trail partner. This training also focuses on building a "foundation" of skills nescessary to produce the safest possible therapy horse.
Therapy Training
IWWH therapeutic horse training takes the "foundation" built in foundation training and maximizes it for therapy use.
Horses that are deemed candidates for potential therapy use will be assessed on 5 personality and physical characteristics; courage, stamina, athleticism, temperament, and energy. Once selected the horse will undergo the training most closely aligning with type of therapy it will be used in. Therapeutic training will continue until the horses 7th year.
We believe our program will help reduce the risk of incident within the equine field, setting a much needed standard of quality and safety for the industry.
Therapy Horse Certification
The development of our training program has given us tremendous insight on what it takes to produce a safe and effective therapy horse. We assist clients in identifying horses that have the potential to be used in equine therapy programs. We will also assess what type therapy the horse will be able to participate in.
Each candidate will go through our personality and physical assessment, then complete a test of competency based on practices from our therapy training program. If both are passed the horse will be ceritfied by IWWH as having the potential of being used in equine assisted therapy.