Aquatics and Therapeutic Horse Riding Programs at Our Children’s Academy

Article Submitted By: Virginia Munday

(Located in Polk County, FL)

Our Children’s Academy has served exceptional education students as a charter school located in Lake Wales, Florida for the past three years, and was recently approved to expand our grades to include PreK through 5th Grade.  We believe that the number one requirement for children to learn is that they are provided an environment that helps to regulate their emotions thus providing them the opportunity to learn.

All staff are trained in the SCERTS Model, a neurodevelopmental approach to educating children.  Sensory stimulation, such as swinging, climbing, jumping, brushing, water, sliding, running, digging, etc. are woven into the curriculum throughout the day which significantly helps to regulate children.  Our Aquatics and Therapeutic Horse riding programs also provide sensory stimulation that calms children and helps them to focus on learning.

Our Children’s Academy has a unique opportunity to be able to make use of the local YMCA pool to add to our list of mediums to do therapy. It is always eye opening for us to see the children in different settings and the water is typically a very enjoyable one for the children and we see things come out of them that we otherwise might not see. There are three components of pool therapy to consider, #1 is safety, #2 is FUN, and as a result, we can get #3, therapeutic interventions from the experience.

During the entire activity from changing into their suits,  working on activities of daily living, waiting to go onto the school bus, getting on the bus and then while we are actually in the pool, we are working on increasing their independence, building strength, problem solving, building relationships and bringing out language/communication skills, all while having fun!

We are grateful for the relationship we have with the YMCA and working with Leah Forb who is their Aquatics Director. The life guards have been very patient with our children while helping us keep them safe during their experience. How great it is to be neighbors with such an incredible organization who does their best in providing safe venues for families in our community. 

The hippotherapy and other equine assisted therapy activities will kick off at the OC Corral in the beginning of October 2008. The kids are chomping at the bit and the adults are too!  We will bring three trained therapeutic riding horses to the Our Children’s Academy campus in Lake Wales two days per week. The children participating in the program are selected based on their therapeutic needs and the standards set forth by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association.

Keep an eye out for “Boat” our most experienced therapeutic riding horse. He is an older gentleman horse who has been helping kids with special needs for many years!  Another veteran joining our program is Grunt, he is a retired barrel horse and currently on the Polk County Mounted Search and Rescue Team. The last equine member of our team is a darling pony who has carried a passel of children and grandchildren through horse shows and will now lend her calm, steady demeanor to the OC Corral.