Western civilization is already proving to be damaged in health and well-being due to expelling the living world from the sterile, artificial and TV and computer environment. It is not possible to return to the original nature because it no longer exists. But there is a possible relationship and emotional return to living beings. For example, horses can improve the life comfort because they are genuine and irreplaceable in their authenticity. If people are still aware that there are relationships helping them, it is necessary to support such relationships; hippotherapy is one of them, and certainly not the most negligible. Hippotherapy is part of Animal Assisted Therapy and represents a long-term way to work with a horse for people with physical disability or with specified disability /disorder. The correct implementation is in the hands of professional experts because hippotherapy treatment session carried out by a layperson brings a great risk of harming the client´s health. The proper and beneficial hippotherapy is performed only by the educated providers – experts. Their training is in the competency of participating organizations. The lecturers´ knowledge and skills will be expanded to be able to implement successfully innovative methods in hippotherapy within the project. The learning process is simpler due to the modern learning environment. The higher quality education is being developed in the industry as a whole. This result will be reflected in the practice of organizations - they will provide better end-user services - for people with physical handicaps or with other specified disability/disorder. The aim of the project is to increase the professional potential of lecturers in hippotherapy, to share and to acquire the new knowledge and skills needed to successfully implement innovative methods in hippotherapy. Thus the continuous improvement of the quality and effectiveness of this method will be ensured. This aim will be achieved by establishing a long-term sustainable cooperation and experience exchange, by creating a knowledge-based community whose activities will far exceed the duration of this project. This newly acquired knowledge and skills will be implemented into innovative educational programs with accessibility to a broad professional community across the EU. The target group is current and future lecturers of hippotherapy courses from partner organizations. The project will involve 3 organizations and 24 lecturers of hippotherapy. The partner organizations represent the different equestrian traditions of European countries, the different status of hippotherapy as a therapy approach or a service for people with specific disorders. It depends on the different concepts of health and social services in the partner countries. A problem during the international sharing of professional information can be inconsistent terminology. This project significantly contributes to overcoming this obstacle. There is a vast scope for mutual inspiration and enrichment to work together, because each partner comes from different traditions, health care, and social services systems, and equestrian culture. The project will provide the opportunity to gain a different perspective on the subject, that will allow for the expansion and development of professional competencies with subsequently transferring in their countries. This conclusion is based on the experience and good practice sharing in countries with a different horse riding culture, different hippotherapy methodical guidance for a variety of clients. The goal will be achieved through four workshops for hippotherapy lecturers in the partner organizations. The form of realization of three workshops will be study trips with the focus on a specific learning areas with a guarantee of gaining maximum information and the possibility of sharing experience. Part of the study trip program will always be a professional workshop organized by the host partner organization. These expert workshops can be attended by lecturers from partner organizations. The program will consist of theoretical and practical parts with examples of good practice based on the traditional concept of hippotherapy in the host country. An integral part of the workshop will always be an evaluation of the benefits and an overall evaluation of the action in order to obtain the documents for the further assignments, the incorporation of the methodology for the hippotherapy training program and the model e-learning course. This will enable the lecturers of further education to apply innovative hippotherapy methods in their practice.The fourth meeting will be devoted to creation of the hippotherapy methodology and the materials prepared for the e-learning course. During this workshop, the partner organizations will work together to develop a methodology with the cooperation of lecturers. The output will be the –“Methodology of hippotherapy” and elaborated materials for the e-learning course.
Western civilisation is already proving to be damaged in health and well-being due to expelling the living world from the sterile, artificial screens' environment. It is not possible to return to the original nature because it no longer exists. But there is a possible relationship and emotional return to living beings. For example, equines can improve life comfort due to their genuine and irreplaceable authenticity. People are still aware animal bonding relationships are helping; it is necessary to support it; Equine Facilitated Therapy (EFT, formally Hippotherapy) is one of them and certainly not the most negligible. EFT is part of Animal Facilitated Therapies. It represents a long-term way to work with an equine for people with special needs. The proper implementation has to be done by experts; otherwise, an EFT treatment session carried out by a layperson can trigger pathology patterns in the client's health. Experts' training is in the competency of participating organisations. The lecturers' knowledge and skills were profounded to implement innovative EFT methods within the project successfully. The learning process is more straightforward due to the modern learning environment. Higher-quality education is being developed in the field as a whole. This result has been reflected in organisations' practice - providing better end-user services - for individuals with special needs. The project aimed to increase EFT lecturers' professional potential and share and acquire the new knowledge and skills needed to implement innovative EFT methods successfully. Thus the continuous improvement of the quality and effectiveness of this method has been ensured. This aim was achieved by establishing a long-term sustainable cooperation and experience exchange by creating a knowledge-based community whose activities has far exceeded the project's duration. This newly acquired knowledge and skills were implemented into innovative educational programs with accessibility to a broad professional community across the EU. The target group was current and future lecturers of EFT courses from partners' organisations. The project involved three organisations, including 24 EFT lecturers. The partners' organisations represented the different equestrian traditions within the EU, the various EFT status as a therapy approach or a service for people with special needs. It depended on the different concepts of health and social services in partners' countries. A problem during the international sharing of professional information was inconsistent terminology. This project significantly contributed to overcoming this obstacle; the participants have agreed to apply the HETI terminology (Horse in Education and Therapy International). There has been a vast scope for mutual inspiration and enrichment to work together because each partner comes from different traditions, health care and social services systems, and equestrian culture. The project provided an opportunity to gain a different perspective on the subject to allow for the expansion and development of professional competencies with subsequently transferring in their countries. This conclusion has been based on the experience and good practice sharing in countries with a different equine-riding culture, other EFT methodical guidance for various clients. The goal was achieved through four workshops for EFT lecturers in the partners' organisations. The realisation of three workshops was in the form of meetings focusing on specific learning areas with a guarantee of gaining complete information and the possibility of sharing experience. Part of the program was always several workshops and lectures organised by the host. Lecturers from partners' organisations participated there. The program consisted of theoretical and practical parts with best practice examples based on the traditional concept of EFT in the host country. All activities were evaluated to focus on further assignments, contents of EFT methodology and the e-learning course. This has enabled the lecturers to apply innovative EFT methods in their practice. The fourth meeting was devoted to creating together project results – "Introducing the EFT methodology" and the e-learning course. The planned conference was postponed to September 2021 in Prague.