Positively Playful Occupational Therapy, PLLC

07/19/2021

So sorry that we have been so quiet on this page, but like many businesses out there, we have been trying to navigate reopening among our current circumstances. Positively playful occupational therapy will resume treating clients on August 1, 2021 but things will look a bit different. We are unable to provide mounted (hippotherapy) services at this time but our clinic will be available for occupational therapy services. And we will include our four-legged friends in sessions whenever appropriate. Looking forward to seeing you 🤗

10/18/2020

💕

Let them be horses.

Turn them out, let them run.
Let them buck, let them leap, rather in the field than the arena, right?

Give them a herd, even a herd of two.
Let them be with other horses, what’s a life without friends?

Give them downtime, not just days off riding, but days to enjoy life.
Happy horses are trainable horses.

Take the rug off, let them feel the sun.
Let them roll in the mud, a little dirt never hurt anyone.

Escape the arena and explore, don’t stick to the well worn path.
The most beautiful places are usually found by accident.

Showing them how much you love them doesn’t have to come from buying expensive things.

You can buy every rug, all the boots, the best tack, wash them, groom them, feed them, put them in the best yard, with the best facilities and wrap them up in cotton wool, but one day you’ll realise the best thing you could possibly do...
.. is just let them be horses.

07/03/2020

💕💕

11/21/2019

Most horses pass from one human to another - some horsemen and women are patient and forgiving, others are rigorous and demanding, others are cruel, others are ignorant.

Horses have to learn how to, at the minimum, walk, trot, canter, gallop, go on trails and maybe jump, to be treated by the vet, all with sense and good manners.

Talented Thoroughbreds must learn how to win races, and if they can't do that, they must learn how to negotiate courses and jump over strange obstacles without touching them, or do complicated dance
like movements or control cattle or accommodate severely handicapped children and adults in therapy work.

Many horses learn all of these things in the course of a single lifetime. Besides this, they learn to understand and fit into the successive social systems of other horses they meet along the way.

A horse's life is rather like twenty years in foster care, or in and out of prison, while at the same time changing schools over and over and discovering that not only do the other students already have their own social groups, but that what you learned at the old school hasn't much application at the new one.

We do not require as much of any other species, including humans.

That horses frequently excel, that they exceed the expectations of their owners and trainers in such circumstances, is as much a testament to their intelligence and adaptability as to their relationship skills or their natural generosity or their inborn nature.

That they sometimes manifest the same symptoms as abandoned orphans - distress, strange behaviors, anger, fear - is less surprising than that they usually don't.

No one expects a child, or even a dog to develop its intellectual capacities living in a box 23 hours a day and then doing controlled exercises the remaining one.

Mammal minds develop through social interaction and stimulation.

A horse that seems "stupid", "slow", "stubborn", etc. might just have not gotten the chance to learn!

Take care of your horses and treasure them.

Written by Jane Smiley

🌟We are their caretakers...let's do it kindly & with compassion!🌟

03/03/2019

💕💕

02/16/2018

Horses = the best therapy!

Cartoon from: http://ow.ly/g5hV30imokH

01/18/2018

Sometimes all a donkey wants is a goodnight cuddle 😝

01/03/2018

Good information for this cold weather snap

Heat is produced through the digestion of hay and can be useful in helping a horse maintain body temperature in cold winter weather. The greatest amount of heat is released when microbes in the gut digest high-fiber feeds such as hay. In horses, the process occurs in the cecum and large colon.

The critical temperature below which horses must begin to use calories to maintain body core temperature, called thermoregulation, is -10° C (14 °F). When the temperature is above 14° F, there is no increase in energy requirement needed to maintain body temperature in a maintenance level horse which is not gestating, lactating, growing, or in work and is not subject to windy or wet weather. This information applies to the maintenance level horse turned out for the winter.
The 500 kg (1,100 lb) horse will experience a 35% increase in metabolic rate and heat production to stay warm once the temperature falls below -10° C (14° F). For every degree centigrade the temperature drops below this level, one must increase the digestive energy, or calories, by 2.5%. For that 500 kg horse, you would increase his caloric intake by .408 Mcal of digestible energy daily. This horse needs 16.4 Mcal daily for maintenance, and you are adding about one-half a Mcal per every one-half degree drop in temperature.

OMAF Livestock

12/16/2017

So very important

12/08/2017

🤣🤣

Hmmm... still want a pony, Santa! 🐎🎅

11/22/2017

Just hanging with my compact cleaner while waiting for the farrier🤣

11/08/2017

It’s that time of year again

11/02/2017

It is with a heavy heart that we share that our dear companion Teddy has crossed the rainbow bridge. He was a fantastic horse who gave his all to the humans he worked with and he will be dearly missed.

10/22/2017

It’s a great day for a roll in the....mud🤣

10/20/2017

Our ponies got a makeover thanks to our volunteer Jess.

09/03/2017

It's the first research of its kind to correlate dog ownership with easing the difficulties of having a child who thinks differently from others.

08/23/2017

HELP!!!! Our last load of hay (approximately 350 bales) is coming this Thursday. We are in need of hands to help move it as I am no longer allowed to lift. We plan to start at 5:30 and with more hands this will go quickly. I am not below bribing with food and drink;) Please let me know if you are able to help out!!!!