Examples of this positive influence are:

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• Horses have a great influence on the intellectual development of people. By repeating actions, we saw that young people learned faster. They knew and remembered perfectly how a horse should be brushed and saddled. They learned concepts such as left and right.

• Horses train visual memory. Our young people learned what a circle and a diagonal were.

• Horses increase their own body experience. Through physical contact with the horse, they got to know their own body better. They became aware of what they could do with their bodies.

• Horses increase the spatial orientation. The young people became aware of time, distance, speed and direction.

• Horses teach people to improve their posture and balance.

• Horses help people learn to coordinate their movements. Our young people became aware that they could steer the horse through the arms, legs, trunk and pelvis (making it go forward, backward, left and right). They learned to control these movements because otherwise the horse would not understand them and would become nervous.

• Horses impart a sense of rhythm and balance to people. The youngsters learned to relax in order to follow the movements of the horse. Some learn to trot on that week and even canter a few steps.

• Horses train our muscles. Youngsters who kept walking crooked or crooked now sat proudly on the horse's back with their backs straight.

• Horses bring about relaxation. Because of the warmth and softness of the coat, the tranquillity that the horses radiate and the healthy air they took away all stress, fear, aggression and tension from the youngsters.

• Horses increase concentration. All attention was focused on horse riding.

• Horses learn to control emotions. Horses perfectly sense the state of mind. The youngsters learned to overcome fear (fear makes a horse nervous) and to control aggression (aggression makes a horse unruly and the horse overcomes by its strength). Horses become cheerful and eager to work because of calm, smiling and enthusiastic people.

• Horses increase the sense of responsibility. For the first time, the youngsters experience that they can play a role for the horse, that the horse needs them and depends on them for safe riding and stabling.

• Horses increase self-confidence and self-esteem. People are proud that such a mighty animal does what we little people ask of the horse.

• Horses give people an unconditional friendship. The youngsters experience that a horse does not take into account what they could or could not do, what they looked like and, above all, a horse does not judge.

• Horses are good for social development. Young people who previously rarely or never spoke to anyone, we now saw enthusiastically against anyone who wanted to hear about their past day. Gone was the timidity and embarrassment.​

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Source: http://www.1001tips.be/vrij-tijd/paarden/paarden-en-mensen/paarden-en-even-met-een-handicap.asp

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