"Horse and Therapy"

"Paard en therapie" (horse and therapy) is the common name of a therapeutic practice and a foundation. The focus is on working with the medium of the horse in therapy. The main emphasis is focusing on special pedagogics.

The place is a litte farm in the Southwest of the Netherlands at the border with Belgium near the Northern Sea. EAT (Equine Assisted Therapy) has been offered there since 1993.

The clients are 80% children ranging in age from 2 years old right the way up to young adults. They have development disorders such as mental, physical and auditory impairments, learning disabilities, lack of motivation, ADHD, autism, Downs syndrome and/or social problems.

The general aim of the therapy is to stimulate the development of the whole person with the help of the horse. The therapeutic work is based on aspects such as the improvement of their sensory integration and psychomotor skills, their concentration and sustaining power, the development of their confidence and self-confidence, the reduction of their fear, aggression and antipathies, the increase of their cognitive skills and the development of their social skills.

The therapy is built up on the background of the individual abilities and weaknesses of their clients, their character, their development disorder and its effect on the whole personality, the case-history, actual problems and the social background. It gets regularly matched to the current situation with the help of therapy reports and discussions with the parents and the staff of the institutions who are visiting the farm.

One possible added value in this holistic process is caused by the warmth, the rhythmic movements and the special ethos a horse offers. You can reach all senses of the client and improve their perception. They can get physically and psychologically more balanced. This means that they often are able to perform on a higher level and to develop skills they otherwise wouldn't be able to.

The facilities

The yard consists of 8 acres of which 5 acres are fields. From the indoor-arena (15x20m) you can directly access the outdoor riding-school (20x40m) and also a path of 2 km length which leads around the fields. You have the possibility to switch spontaneously between the facilities and to combine the shelter and seclusion of indoor riding with the experience of nature, integrating this into the therapy.

A portable mounting aid can be placed outside as well as inside and can be matched to the special needs of the client. The conveniences allow absolute privacy and individual solutions.

The horses

The horses grow up on the farm and are backed and trained there. They start with free-style training as shown by Hempfling, Monty Roberts and Pat Parelli. They follow a classical dressage education and basic jumping training.

In addition, the horses are specially trained for their therapeutic task and get carefully used to all materials. Throughout the whole year, the horses have the possibility to walk together in the fields or a paddock for a couple of hours each day.

They are arranged and matched according to their talens, abilities and level of education and they stay on the farm for all their live.

At the moment 6 horses live on the farm: 2 Haflingers, 3 part-bred horses and ponies and one Arab.

The practice has grown

Heike Markmann opened the practice on the farm in 1993. Originally she worked as an Editor with a Daily Newspaper. Because of the development disorder of one of her own children she got to know EAT. She started to study special pedagogics. During this training she laid down the emphasis on EAT.

The practice has developed and grown since then. Starting in 2002, Heike became one of the nine international partners on the EU Leonardo Da Vinci Pegasus Project which involved them in the design of post-graduate programme in EAT for professionals in health/social care. The programme is now up and running. (www.pegasuseurope.be )

EAT needs support from society. That was one of the conclusions of the Pegasus Project. It is a very efficient therapy but also expensive. You need creative solutions to keep the charges as low as possible for the clients.

The practice on the farm could only be built up because of the inheritance that Heike's father, Alfred Markmann left. The foundation "Horse and Therapy" was registered in the beginning of this year to ensure its existence in future.

Aims of the foundation are the support of the clients and the facilities and the stimulation of EAT in general.