By Andrea D. Gow, M.Cl.Sc

Building communication skills is the first step toward helping children and adults with special needs develop their full potential... if that first step is on horseback, so much the better! Supporting communication skills allows everyone to “get their message across.”

Three areas of my life came together and led me to Sunrise Therapeutic Riding & Learning Centre (Sunrise), to CanTRA, and to the opportunity to volunteer as a consulting speech language pathologist (SLP):

• My passion for interacting with people with special needs. I have a cousin with Down syndrome who has been a very important part of my life.
• My work as a speech-language pathologist (SLP). Although I am now retired, I have worked with preschool and school age children and adults in community, hospital, and educational settings over the last 38 years.
• My love of horses. I rode Western as a teenager and got back in the saddle, an English saddle this time, in my 50s!

As a consulting SLP volunteer, I have been able to provide information about communication strategies to support the fabulous work of our therapeutic riding instructors. One of the main differences between a therapeutic riding program and a traditional clinical setting is that the farm offers “greener pastures” for communication. Motivation and engagement are found at the barn! Horses are fun! Riding is fun!

General language facilitation strategies are used to keep communication flowing in the riding arena. For example, it is important to use the rider’s name and use cue words such as Look, Listen, Prepare, etc., and to be animated. There are many visual distractions that would not be present in a clinical setting. However, the rider’s connection with the horse and the empowerment felt by “holding the reins” produces an engaging and productive learning situation. This creates the best environment possible for communicating with the rider. Riders want to be there to participate, learn, and communicate!

Some riders use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to communicate. AAC is a combination of techniques and tools used to communicate a message when speech is not sufficient to meet the communicator’s needs. AAC supports expressive, receptive, and social communication skills. It is not the intent or scope of this article to review AAC. It is a fascinating, ever-changing, and very individualized area of speech and language pathology.

The information in this article is just the “tip of the iceberg” — or should I say “tip of the haystack” — when it comes to supporting communication skills in the therapeutic riding arena.

Andrea D. Gow, M. Cl. Sc., is registered as a non-practising member of the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario, (CASLPO) and is a CanTRA member.

(Photos courtesy of CanTRA, shared from CanTRA accredited therapeutic riding program sessions.)