Duration: 2 day (aprox. 6h per day)
Cost:
- $750 for Riders and Handlers (costs for workshops may vary with location; price DOES NOT include Evaluation Phase for participants that decide to become Horse Boy Method Practitioners)
- $495 for non-riders ($250 day 1 and $250 day 2 — does not qualify to become a Practitioner)
Qualification for: Basic Horse Boy Method Practitioner
Designed for:
- Therapeutic riding instructors
- Riders with an interest in Autism
- Speech, Occupational and other Therapists or Teachers with a horse background
Requirements:
- Age 16 and older; neuro-typical only (for young adults on the spectrum check with your trainer regarding participation)
- Must be able to comfortably ride at walk and trot.
- mount 15.2 hand horse on trail ride without mounting block.
- mount 15.2 hand horse bareback by being boosted by other participant.
- Body Mass Index (BMI) of 28 or lower. Calculate here: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm
- Exceptions: If you are an extremely experienced horseman/woman but are not able to perform a requirement listed above due to an injury or other condition contact us. If you can provide proof of your background with horses (e.g. evented at prelim in college or run a riding stable for 10+ years etc.) we might be able to approve you to be certified as Horse Handler. If approved you will receive a certificate as Horse Handler and can still offer Horse Boy Method to your clients.
Can I bring my own horse?
Unfortunately, for this course it’s not possible to bring your own horse. We are using trained school horses that can ensure all participants can successfully complete the exercises.
At some workshops it’s possible to bring your own horse to take additional lessons with your horse before or after the actual workshop at an additional cost. Please check in with your trainer if you are interested to bring a horse and take extra lessons.
What will be covered in Horse Boy Method 1?
- Theory and basic neuro-science: How the autistic brain works, how to switch off the cell danger response, how to provide oxytocin, how to open up the learning receptors in the brain
- Evolution of Horse Boy Method and how we have been mentored by adult autists such as Dr. Temple Grandin, University studies into Horse Boy, and the specific science of our Methods
- Environment: How to set up the perfect YES environment to aid communication, how to eliminate bad sensory triggers, how to make sure you have the right human/empathetic environment, how to deal with hazards
- Sensory work: How to serve clients, how to pick the right horse, how to pick the right environment
- Backriding: How to select and prepare the horse, how to engage with the child, why backriding works better than leading horses – oxytocin vs. cortisol
- Rule-based Games and Perspective-Taking: how to work in the saddle with the child to build the brain, how to teach families to take these games home and do them without horses
- Academics: How to introduce basic literacy, numeracy, and science; how to develop these to the higher grade levels
- Long-Lining: How to get the oxytocin effect when the person is too big to share the saddle with you or if the child wants to ride with a parent/caregiver who cannot ride; how to prepare the horse for this
- Self-Advocacy: How to use the long-lining horse to help adolescents and adults begin to teach you rather than the other way around, and how they therefore learn to “find their voice”
What to bring
- If you ride, please bring proper riding attire (boots, jeans or other riding pants, helmet, gloves etc)
- Please bring plenty of water to drink and something to snack on.
- Notebook and pen