Service Animals In Equine Therapy

Have you ever seen an animal that is a service animal? Animals can make great companions. They can be great friends and company keepers they can provide help and do jobs like service animals and soldier animals. They can do so much more. Soldier dogs undergo months of training. They learn things like obedience, identifying the enemy, identifying certain scents, and lots of other things. Soon they are paired with human soldiers, with whom they form a deep bond, soons after the hard work begins. The bond between a deployed handler and soldier dog is like no other. You’ll be blown away by the love that even the toughest of these soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have for their canine comrades. When you’re at war and you’re together almost
24/7 (sometimes sharing a tent, or even a sleeping bag or foxhole, for weeks on end), when you depend on each other for everything, including your very lives, an incomparable bond forms. Hearing a war-hardened Marine’s voice break when he talks about his best friend is a very moving experience. It is everyone's worst nightmare. Imagine that you are the victim of a serious crime, there are police officers and other people interviewing you making you relive the memories over and over again. Now imagine the same situation, but this time, a special dog rests at your feet during every interview, sits with you outside the courtroom as you wait to testify. Perhaps even goes up to the witness stand with you, and stands beside you at sentencing when you give the court your victim-impact statement. This four-legged victim/witness advocate, accompanied by his human counterpart from the victim advocate’s office helps you remain calm and reduces what can be a scary part of the legal process. You stroke his soft fur, gaze into his warm brown eyes and feel the reassuring weight of his head resting on your foot. He’s there for you, giving you exactly what you need at that moment: strength to get through this part of the nightmare. I found this article that i thought that i should share. It is from a PBS newshour article I couldn't find the author.
Mother:My daughters were a victim of abuse.
Pearl Curiel’s daughters had to testify.
GIRL: I felt nervous, because the judge is like right there, and you just look up at the judge and you think, I’m going to freak out.
GIRL: I felt kind of scared, but once I saw Dozer with me, I wasn’t scared anymore.
Mother:I couldn’t be right there, where the mom is supposed to be. I couldn’t hold my daughter and rub her back while she talked, you know? But he was. He was able to say, you know what, I’m not going to leave you. And I’m going to sit right next to you, and you can pet me, and you can talk to me, you know?
I don’t know if they would have made it through without him.
It’s so silly, because it’s like it’s just a dog, you know, it’s just — but he is a superhero. Like, for my girls, I know he is.

Equine therapy is the discipline of using horses as a means to provide experiences in order to promote emotional growth. The horses provide an excellent way for troubled youth to react when they are otherwise therapy resistant. Equine therapists will usually teach many lessons on ways in which horses learn, react, and follow instructions to the lives of youth themselves.
One example that is used often is when students are just beginning a horse therapy program, the instructor will have the horse stand in the middle of the arena. The youth are supposed to get the horse to move outside of a large circle without touching the horse at all. Many of the students often clap, whistle, yell all to no avail. Lessons are taught that when others, be it parents, friends, counselors or associates try and get us to do something the best way is probably not yelling, clapping, or forcing.
Students will also learn how to lead a horse. Most often they begin by trying to pull on a lead rope, standing in front of the horse. They learn that the best way to lead a horse is not in front or behind the horse, but by its
side.