A Day in the Life: Inside a Speech Therapy Session on Horseback

"Is this really speech therapy?" parents often ask as they watch their children laughing and engaged during sessions at Speaking of Horses. The joy and natural flow of our sessions sometimes disguises the intentional, evidence-based therapeutic interventions happening in every moment. Today, I'd like to take you behind the scenes of a typical speech therapy session on horseback to reveal the layers of learning and development occurring throughout.

Meeting Our Therapy Partners

Our therapy horses

—Whinny (our pony), Phil, and Blink—live outdoors year-round rather than in stalls. This lifestyle choice isn't just for their happiness; as older equines, they need constant movement to maintain muscle tone and prevent deterioration. Their outdoor lifestyle also means our sessions begin with the authentic experience of retrieving a horse from the field—a process rich with therapeutic opportunities.

The Perfect Match: Pairing Horse and Rider

We're exceptionally thoughtful about matching each child with the right equine partner. This pairing isn't random but based on careful consideration of each child's sensory profile and therapeutic needs:

- For children who are under-regulated or sensory-seeking, Phil's more energetic, concussive rhythm helps to alert and organize their nervous system

- For children who are sensory-averse or easily overstimulated, Blink or Whinny's gentler, slower gaits provide a calming, less intense sensory experience

This intentional matching process sets the stage for optimal therapeutic outcomes before the session even formally begins.

Reading Emotions: The First Therapeutic Moment

As we approach the field, we encourage children to observe and interpret the horses' body language. Is Whinny walking toward us with ears perked forward, indicating interest and engagement? Or is Phil standing in a corner with ears pinned back, suggesting he might be feeling irritable or withdrawn?

This initial observation becomes our first therapeutic opportunity—a natural discussion about recognizing emotions in others and how to approach someone based on their emotional state. For children with pragmatic language challenges, these concrete, visible emotional signals are infinitely more readable than the subtle facial expressions of humans.

"Look at Blink's ears today—they're forward and he's walking right up to us. What do you think that tells us about how he's feeling?" I might ask, creating a natural bridge to discussions about reading emotions in people too.

The Grooming Routine: Complex Language and Executive Function

Once we've brought the horse to our wash stall, the grooming process begins. What might seem like a simple routine to experienced equestrians is actually a complex language and cognitive exercise for many of our clients:

1. Start with the curry comb, moving in circles to bring dirt to the surface

2. Follow with the hard brush, stroking in the direction of hair growth to remove loosened dirt

3. Use the mane and tail brush for those specific areas

4. Finish by carefully cleaning each hoof with the hoof pick, avoiding the sensitive "frog" area

This sequence incorporates numerous speech and language goals:

- Following multi-step directions: "First brush his body, then his neck and head"

- Understanding spatial concepts: "Brush in the direction of his hair" or "around the frog, not on it"

- Vocabulary development: Learning specialized terms like "curry," "frog," "withers," and "fetlock"

- Sequencing: Learning to perform steps in the correct order

- Categorization: Understanding which tool is appropriate for which task

For children with language disorders or executive functioning challenges, this seemingly simple grooming routine represents significant cognitive work—all happening in a context that feels purposeful and engaging rather than like "therapy."

Mounting Up: Motor Planning and Executive Function

Leading the horse to the mounting block and getting into the saddle is far from a simple task. It requires complex motor planning, body awareness, and executive functioning:

- Motor sequencing: Placing the left foot in the stirrup, then swinging the right leg over

- Organizational skills: Gathering and adjusting reins to appropriate length

- Body awareness: Aligning ears, shoulders, hips, and heels

- Working memory: Maintaining this alignment while simultaneously attending to other tasks

- Emotional regulation: Keeping calm to help the horse remain calm (as horses readily sense and respond to human emotions)

Before the horse takes a single step, the child has already engaged in a remarkable series of therapeutic challenges—all disguised as the exciting process of preparing to ride.

The Magic Moment: Optimal Learning State

When the horse finally takes its first steps with the rider aboard, something transformative often happens—the child's nervous system visibly relaxes. The rhythmic, bilateral movement of the horse has a profound regulatory effect on the human brain and body, creating what we therapists recognize as an optimal state for learning.

This is when the more focused speech and language work begins, supported by the regulatory movement of the horse and the heightened engagement of being in an active, outdoor environment.

Targeted Speech and Language Intervention

Depending on each child's specific goals, we incorporate different therapeutic activities:

For Articulation Skills-

We position ringside games—dart boards, toy axe throwing, bean bag toss, tic-tac-toe, or football toss—that naturally elicit the target sound. These activities allow us to achieve the high repetition necessary for articulation therapy (often over 100 repetitions per session) without the drill feeling tedious or clinical.

A child working on "s" sounds might aim at specific targets ("snake," "sun," "star") on our dartboard, practicing their target sound with each throw while simultaneously working on core strength, balance, and coordination.

For Expressive and Receptive Language-

We might engage in:

- Creating and following riding patterns ("Go around the barrel twice, then make a figure eight through the cones")

- Playing description games like "Headbands" while mounted

- Narrating our actions with increasingly complex sentence structures

- Categorization activities like collecting colored objects around the arena according to categories

For Pragmatic Language and Social Skills-

The natural hierarchy and social structure of our horse herd provides endless opportunities for meaningful discussions about social dynamics. For example:

"Have you noticed that Blink is often pushed away from the hay by the other horses because he's lowest in the social hierarchy? This is similar to what you mentioned about lunch room challenges at school. What strategies might help Blink? How could those same strategies help in your situation?"

These real-world parallels often resonate more deeply than hypothetical social scenarios discussed in a clinic setting.

Sensory Integration on the Trail

After focused intervention, we often transition to a trail ride that incorporates sensory integration opportunities. Our developing sensory trail includes:

- Hanging beads to ride through (providing tactile stimulation)

- Drums positioned for children to reach and bang (proprioceptive input)

- Sensory stations with boxes of horse grain and hay for tactile and olfactory exploration

This sensory-rich cool-down period helps integrate the skills practiced during the more structured portion of the session.

Dismounting and Closing Routine

The session concludes with the dismounting sequence—another opportunity for motor planning, body awareness, and sequential thinking. Children learn to:

1. Lean forward and hug the horse's neck

2. Swing their right leg over the horse's back

3. Slide down the side to the ground

For many children, this seemingly simple sequence requires extensive support initially. As they progress through our program, we gradually fade supports to foster independence.

After dismounting, we return to the grooming routine, reinforcing the sequential memory and direction-following practiced earlier. We always end with treats for our equine partners, acknowledging their essential contribution to the therapeutic process, before returning them to their field and herd.

The Invisible Therapy

Parents sometimes question what we're actually "working on" during sessions because the clinical nature of therapy is so thoroughly disguised by the natural, engaging environment. A session at Speaking of Horses looks nothing like the image most people have of speech therapy—sitting at a table with flashcards or worksheets in a sterile clinic.

And that's precisely the magic of our approach. Children don't realize they're "working" on speech and language because the motivation is intrinsic to the activity itself. They're not practicing a sound 100 times to please a therapist; they're doing it because they want to play the game, communicate with their horse, or navigate the trail successfully.

This intrinsic motivation, combined with the regulatory effects of horseback riding and the rich, contextual language opportunities of the barn environment, creates accelerated progress that often surpasses what we see in traditional settings.

Beyond Words

What can't be captured in a procedural description of our sessions is the joy, confidence, and sense of accomplishment visible on children's faces. For many of our clients, their time at Speaking of Horses represents their first experience of feeling capable and successful in a therapeutic setting.

One father recently shared: "My daughter dreaded speech therapy until she started at Speaking of Horses. Now she wakes up asking if it's 'horse day.' The progress we've seen in just three months exceeds what we accomplished in two years of traditional therapy."

This transformation—from viewing therapy as a chore to embracing it as a highlight of the week—may be the most powerful aspect of equine-assisted speech therapy. When children are engaged and motivated, the therapeutic possibilities expand exponentially.

Speaking of Horses is a nonprofit organization that relies on the generosity of community members, corporate sponsors, and grant funding to continue our mission. While we accept insurance including Medicaid to make our services accessible to families of all socioeconomic backgrounds, the costs of maintaining our therapy horses, facilities, and specialized equipment far exceed what insurance reimbursement covers. Your donations make it possible for us to provide this transformative therapy to children who would otherwise not have access to these life-changing services. https://www.speakingofhorsesincorporated.org/donate