Hippotherapy and Therapeutic Riding: Practicing Social Workers and Undergraduate Social Work Students

This study attempted to explore, through the use of surveys, what practicing social workers and undergraduate student social workers know about hippotherapy and therapuetic riding. In addition, this study made an effort to examine what the key means of learning participants had when it came to these alternative methods of therapy. The hypothesis that undergraduate social work students would collectively not be familiar with hippotherapy or therapuetic riding and that practicing social workers would have a better knowledge base in this area, was tested through the use of surveys. These surveys were distributed in a handful of undergraduate social work classes and among a convenience sample of social work agencies in the providence area. A total number of 21 surveys were collected and analyzed using the computer program Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Using percentages that were found by creating frequency tables, it was determined that 44.4% of undergraduate social work students had heard of these alternative therapies compared to 41.7% of professional social workers. These findings were not consistent with the predictions. What was consistent with the study’s predictions was that practicing social workers and undergraduate social work students indicated their community to be their primary means of learning about hippotherapy and therapuetic riding