Neigh neigh, neigh......

This summer is flying by! Faster than any other summer I think. Though I am excited to get back to Rockhurst for senior year, I am also really enjoying what I am doing right now.

I have had an awesome two weeks so far at my volunteer internship at Heartland Equine Therapeutic Riding Academy (HETRA) in Omaha. In case you don’t remember what I am doing, I was accepted for the Miller Family Service program, in which I provide 5 weeks of 40 hours per week of volunteer work at a non-profit company that I chose and was approved by the scholarship program. Then, I get a small stipend of a scholarship towards my tuition for next year from the Miller family’s fund in place of my free work at this organization. Pretty cool huh? It helps out HETRA because they get my work for free, but my work isn’t totally free from my end because I get a scholarship.

So, you are probably wondering what in the world is HETRA? It is a place where they do Hippotherapy (therapy using horses) with disabled children and adults. It is a really awesome place. They have 2 different barns (one in West Omaha, one in Valley) where they have 16 different therapy horses. The kids just absolutely LOVE the horses and they are so proud of the fact that they get to do something cool and different than most of their peers. It is good for the kids physically because the therapists can work on strengthening muscles, stretching out spastic muscles, and working on balance and coordination. It is also good mentally because the therapist might work on getting the child to talk and to interact better. Also, by counting objects or playing games on the horse they can improve their cognitive skills, or just to improve their overall confidence as a person.

The first two weeks that I have worked at HETRA we have been doing summer horse camps with some of the more functional kids. The take short break between normal therapy sessions this time of year due to the heat, but they will start up again next week. The horse camps have been really awesome to work with the kids and get to know them. We had a lot of really special and awesome kids attend.

I have also been learning a lot about horses. I’m a big animal person, but really didn’t know much about horses at all before this. I’ve had to chuckle to myself sometimes, because at the horse camps I have been both helping the kids with the activities, but also simultaneously learning about things like parts of a saddle, breeds of horses, and different types of grooming tools right along with the kids. I’ve also been learning how to feed the horses at one of the barns too. Right away I just felt like I was in the way because I didn’t know how or what to do, but now I am getting the hang of a lot of things and it’s really fun! I think I might have become a horse girl by the time this is over. Here’s a picture of a few of the horses outside the barn (Trixie, Jesse, and Rainbow).