Parker Nunnally has been volunteering at a therapeutic riding barn for special needs children for three years. Through this experience, Parker has witnessed children overcome their fears of horses and learn to stand on and feed the horses. Parker chose to do a research paper on how hippotherapy benefits special needs children for a senior project. Parker then designed a barn facility that would best meet the needs of the children based on the research. Parker found a facilitator, Courtney Modisett, who has experience in occupational therapy and hippotherapy, to help with the project. While the project provided insight into hippotherapy and the needs of special needs children, Parker does not plan to pursue hippotherapy as a career but may work with horses

1. Parker Nunnally
Mrs. Lester
Advanced Grammar and Composition
5 March 2012
Speech Outline
How many children do you know that can stand on top of a horse while it walks? A
therapeutic riding barn for special needs children that I have been volunteering at for three years
has showed me just that. Throughout my three years I have seen children from the first day they
showed up, where they were petrified of the horses, to being able to almost anything with the
horses. After a few months of aiding the children I have witnessed some awesome things. From
standing on top of the horses, to having a complete fear of horses and being able to feed them I
have seen a lot of things and it has been an eye opening experience.
My mom grew up riding horses all of her life and she has brought that passion of animals
into our house now. I am very into the outdoors and once I heard of an opportunity to help with
special needs children riding horses I was all over it. When we had to pick a topic for our senior
project I knew this would be a good one for me.
The topic of my research paper was how hippotherapy benefits special needs children. In
my project for my product I design a barn facility that will best benefit the needs of the children.
I chose this because it would be easy to do and interesting to design a barn. Without my research
paper I wouldn’t know what all the children need out of a barn to cater to their benefits.

2. Now I’m going to tell you about the process I followed in creating my product. First,
finding my facilitator. Courtney Modisett has been a great facilitator and finding her was not
hard at all. When I was looking for my facilitator, I wanted someone I could relate too and would
be easy to work with. After putting in numerous hours at the barn I developed a friendship with
Courtney. After hearing her credentials I knew she would be a good choice as my facilitator.
Master of Science in Occupational Therapy Brenau University- Gainesville, Georgia, August 15,
2009. Bachelor of Science in Animal Science Purdue University- West Lafayette, Indiana, 1999.
North American Riding for the Handicapped (NARHA, now PATH) Certified Advanced Level
Instructor 2001-present (Cognitive and physical disabilities, Registered status 2001-2002). After
finding my facilitator it was time to get started on my product. When we first started this project
I was free to get with my facilitator on week days and weekends. However, once baseball started
up for the school we encountered a conflict on our work hours since practice is every day after
school and some Saturdays. My facilitator and I decided we would meet early on Saturday
mornings instead of on week days. I have learned a tremendous amount, not only about
hippotherapy, but the needs of certain children, architecture skills and most importantly time
management. Work habits— My time management skills were not up to par for this project. I
was behind with meeting with my facilitator and procrastinated on finishing my barn design.
This has taught me, though, to get things done when they are assigned. Communication skills—
This project has somewhat enhanced my communication skills. I have met many people at the
barn and finding a facilitator forced me to go out of my way and talk to people about it. Career
prospects- After this project I cannot see myself doing hippotherapy, however, I can see myself
working with horses. I am interested in horses and animals and will most likely pursue a career
in veterinary medicine. This project was very eye opening and gave a lot of good insight on

3. hippotherapy; however, I do not believe I will go into that field since it requires a lot of long
hours and can be very frustrating having to deal with the kids. Thank you for your time.