|
|
“JP Paddock Says” was the latest of a series of investigations to find a way to reduce the number of horse-related injuries on the Navajo Reservation, especially among children. The American Association for Horsemanship Safety was introduced to the problem as part of a project at the Seba Dalkai Boarding School. In that project AAHS trained several Navajo to be riding instructors, including renowned Navajo bull rider, James “JP” Paddock.
On its surface the JP Paddock Says project was only a booklet to teach horse safety to school children around the Reservation; however, in reality, it was the latest attempt to identify a target population, produce a resource that could take the desired information to the targeted population around the Navajo Reservation, and have the targeted population retain the information and use it to avoid injuries.
We expected to have a book that taught safe horsemanship in a manner that we could demonstrate by means of pre- and post-tests that kids had learned something. We also wanted to know what they had learned and if what they knew was homogenous for the three target age groups—4th, 5th and 6th graders.
The results of the project were beyond all expectations and
are reported below. Overall,
knowledge of horsemanship safety improved from the pre-test to the post-test by
17.6 percent—a dramatic increase!
Aggregate
Scores
By Grades
|
Pre-Test
for 459 Students |
Post-Test
for 459 Students |
||||||
|
Grade |
Right |
Wrong |
% Right |
Right |
Wrong |
% Right |
% Change |
|
3 |
110 |
100 |
52.4 |
165 |
45 |
78.6 |
+26.2 |
|
4 |
869 |
605 |
59.0 |
999 |
467 |
68.1 |
+ 9.1 |
|
5 |
748 |
539 |
58.1 |
956 |
307 |
75.7 |
+17.6 |
|
6 |
1901 |
1428 |
57.1 |
2586 |
746 |
77.6 |
+20.5 |
|
8 |
315 |
224 |
58.4 |
421 |
118 |
78.1 |
+19.7 |
|
|
3943 |
2896 |
57.7 |
5127 |
1683 |
75.3 |
+17.6 |
Return to Top of This Page
Return to Injuries to Persons Page