{"id":4340,"date":"2013-05-03T11:28:42","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T17:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summit-education.com\/?p=4340"},"modified":"2013-05-03T11:28:42","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T17:28:42","slug":"ponies-with-a-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/summit-education.com\/blog\/general\/ponies-with-a-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Ponies With A Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"

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You might think that miniature horses are just tiny and cute, but at Shands Rehab Hospital in Gainsville, Florida, miniature horses are assisting patients in therapy programs.\u00a0 Gentle Carousel Therapy Horses<\/a> has partnered with the hospital to provide the newest form of therapy to patients.\u00a0 \u201cNo-one plans to go to rehab,\u201d said Andrea Gilbert, a Shands staff occupational therapist. \u201cLife threw a curveball, and now everything is hard. But the horses give [our patients] a reason to smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Typical therapy sessions with the horses entail the patient and horse working together to achieve goals such as walking up and down stairs, working on focus and balance skills, and gaining coordination and strength.\u00a0 Interacting with the horses provides functional activity but in a purposeful way.<\/p>\n

Jorge Garcia-Bengochea, executive director and co-founder of Gentle Carousel, was hit by a car at a young age and understands the difficult path to recovery.\u00a0 Garcia-Bengochea reflects, \u201cDoing the work that we do now, I think of that. I would\u2019ve loved to have a little animal visit me.”\u00a0 Read the full article of the therapeutic miniature horses here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What do you think of using animals in your therapy program? Share with us here or on our Facebook<\/a> page!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might think that miniature horses are just tiny and cute, but at Shands Rehab Hospital in Gainsville, Florida, miniature horses are assisting patients in therapy programs.\u00a0 Gentle Carousel Therapy Horses has partnered with the hospital to provide the newest form of therapy to patients.\u00a0 \u201cNo-one plans to go to rehab,\u201d said Andrea Gilbert, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t