Equine Assisted Activities in Finland –

Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu Tampere University of Applied Sciences Degree Programme in Social services HIRVONEN, MIIA: Equine Assisted Activities in Finland – The current situation from the point of view of the people working in the field Bachelor’s thesis 53 pages, appendixes 17 pages February 2010 The topic of this Bachelor’s Thesis is Equine Assisted Activities in Finland – The current situation from the point of view of the people working in the field. The author’s personal interest in the subject is based on her own experiences in equine industry combined with interest towards special needs groups. The amount of research in English on the field of Equine Assisted Activities in Finland is rather limited and, therefore, all information gained through this work is valuable. The purpose of this Bachelor’s Thesis was to gain a wider picture on the situation of Equine Assisted Activities in Finland. The aim was, also, to strengthen people’s overall knowledge in the field. The answers for the research questions were searched in autumn 2009 through reviewing some of the basic theoretical information on equine industry and, sending a survey with multiple choice questions to a group of people working in the field. The final number of the respondents decreased from about a dozen to seven, of whom six was taken into account in the final results. Due to the rather narrow sampling in the survey used in this Bachelor’s Thesis it seems incoherent to make any assured arguments on the situation of Equine Assisted Activities in the whole country of Finland. However, it can be stated that there are different types of workers: the ones having primarily worked in the equine industry before the EAA-studies and, on the other hand, the ones having worked outside the equine industry. It seems that in both cases the worker is likely to keep his old clientele and, to integrate the Equine Assisted Activities as to become part of the old work. Also, there seems to be a distinction between the people offering more specific activities for more specific clientele and, on the other hand, the people preferring as not to define the clientele or aim too strictly.