http://www.raiseyourdreamsfarm.com/Therapeutic.htm
This weekend, I visited my cousin Lisa's house. She has Cerebral Palsy, a disorder that causes her not to walk. Because of this, she is doing a variety of physical therapy, one of which is called Hippotherapy. Hippotherapy is a form of physical therapy that involves doing the therapy on horses. According to the American Hippotherapy Association, the therapeutic benefits of the horse were recognized as early as 460 BC. While with my cousin Lisa, she described her experience of doing Hippotherapy with her physical therapist, Linda. Lisa said that she enjoyed doing the therapy on the horse versus doing it on a mat because the horse made the session more fun, and made her feel like she really was not doing therapy at all. I believe that Hippotherapy should be used more because it could eliminate the aspect the doing hard work; especially for younger kids. Hippotherapy is rapidly becoming more popular in the physical therapy field. I predict that within a couple years, Hippotherapy will be the most practiced treatment in the world of physical therapy.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify- hippotherapy is a treatment tool used by physical, occupational and speech therapists. The horse functions as a tool in the same way a therapy ball does, but the horse is more fun.The rider often does work very hard and may be exhausted at the end of the session, but not think about being tired because the therapy was so enjoyable. Unfortunately, there are not enough hippotherapy farms and trained therapists to meet the demands. But hopefully, that will change in the future.
Read more on my web site and blog at:
HORSEOT.COM
HORSEOT.BLOGSPOT.COM
Barbara Smith, M.S. OTR/L