Hippotherapy Clinical Specialist Practice Exam 2026 – Your Complete All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

Long-term goals set the destination of therapy and describe the broad, functional changes you aim to achieve by the end of treatment. In hippotherapy, these goals anchor the plan to meaningful outcomes—such as improved trunk control, dynamic balance, postural alignment, and functional mobility that carry over to daily activities. Having LTGs helps you choose the right interventions, track progress with specific measures, and communicate progress to the client, family, and payers.

For example, an LTG might specify that the client will demonstrate improved seated stability and motor control during riding tasks, enabling safer, more independent activity in daily life. Short-term goals then break that LTG into smaller, time-bound steps with concrete criteria, showing how progress will be reached.

Administrative items like insurance forms, equipment lists, or scheduling calendars support care delivery but aren’t the clinical components that define expected therapeutic outcomes. They organize and document care, whereas the treatment plan itself centers on the LTGs and the concrete plan to achieve them.