How do we retain our balance while walking? Respond to different stimuli in our environment? Hold a pencil? Unlock and open a door?  These are all innate processes that many of us take for granted.  But for some, these tasks are challenging tests of coordination, determination, and dexterity. For those with physical, cognitive, or neuromotor difficulties, physical and sensory therapies are game changers.  Dream Catcher of Los Angeles, in Long Beach, CA, elevates their clients to horseback, connecting the rhythm of a horse’s gait and movement to therapeutic sessions that increase the rider’s sense of freedom through increased flexibility and balance, muscle and strength development, and sensory training.

In this studio, students will partner with horses and instructors at Dream Catcher to develop therapeutic tools for their patients on horseback. Students will investigate the challenges and opportunities of equine-assisted therapy through interaction with therapists, clients, and the horses. By examining their own lives, students will identify key moments that can be translated to engage the dexterity, coordination, and confidence of the riders. Through abstracting these tasks, students will build these processes into a dynamic and interactive “sensory trail” of objects that they will construct and install on the Dream Catcher property.