A GAIT to the east opened

South Korean veterinary students came to Milford to learn GAIT techniques, By Marilyn Rosenthal MILFORD — Daseul Jeong, a student of Veterinary Medicine at Gyeongsang National University in South Korea wrote Martha Dubensky, Executive Director of GAIT, an email last week. Jeong was keeping in touch and remembering the marvelous time she and her fellow Veterinary Medical School students (Se-jin Park and Gi-chil Do ) had during their visit to GAIT last summer. Daseul Jeong is the leader of a project called “Animal Assisted Therapy “ at the Veterinary Medical School in Busan and they visited to study GAIT techiques. The team came on a Friday afternoon during the summer. They arrived two hours before the lights went out in Milford. Of course, Martha Dubensky provided genuine American hospitality and put the team up at her home. This gave them the opportunity to stay and watch the entire GAIT program the next day. It also provided a unique cultural experience of being in an American household. Jeong said in her email that they have never seen anything like GAIT in South Korea. “Before coming to GAIT, I didn’t think that Equine therapy could treat the problems that it does. Hippotherapy is especially good for kids, because they think it is fun and that is better than going to the hospital once a week, she wrote.” She added that “riding horses in South Korea is not that common and most animal assisted therapy is with small animals. “ Samsung, the Korean manufacturer of digital audio/video equipment is a great supporter of therapy using dogs. Visit www.mydog.samsung.com/eng/newsletter Jeong had an opportunity to talk to the volunteers at GAIT as well as some of the riders and their families. She wrote that she was “very impressed with the quality of the program and how it changes people’s lives to make them more independent.” Jeong and the team are now spreading the word of the importance of hippotherapy and hope to spread its practical use in Korea. They are analyzing the infrastructure of organizations like GAIT and hope that their data collected at GAIT will help them start a project like that in Korea. It was good to hear such kind words and Martha Dubensky was “genuinely” pleased.

How did they find GAIT?
The Ministry of Health and Welfare in South Korea is supporting “Animal Assisted Therapy “ and helped to bring Jeong and the team to the U.S. The veterinary students contacted NARHA, the leading professional organization for equine assisted activity and therapy, and selected GAIT (Genuine Alternative in Therapy) as the facility to visit. among many other choices. GAIT is a NARHA Premier Accredited Facility and Martha Dubensky is a NARHA Advanced Instructor and the Regional representative.