What is Therapeutic Riding?

Therapeutic Riding classes are especially designed to enhance coordination, balance, and self-esteem. Our instructors teach more advanced equitation skills and basic horsemanship skills to children with special needs. In addition to riding skills, additional horsemanship skills include grooming and horse care. Many of our hippotherapy clients "graduate" into the Therapeutic Riding program. The benefits of the therapy programs carry over into therapeutic riding. Several of our children have participated in the Special Olympics and will now participate in typical horse shows!

What is Hippotherapy?

"Hippo" comes from the Latin word for horse. Hippotherapy, or therapy on horseback, is a powerful treatment tool used by licensed therapists to improve a child's neuromotor function, flexibility, posture, and balance.

Hippotherapy differs from therapeutic riding in that the child does not control or guide the horse. The child is a passive rider. A licensed therapist, assisted by side-walkers to ensure the safety of the child, works with the child in various positions to stimulate neuromotor development along with many other benefits. This distinction from therapeutic riding is critical in that the pelvic movement of a horse is similar to that of the normal human gait (walk). This movement provides multi-sensory stimulation needed for some children who have difficulty processing or sorting out sensory input. By sitting passively on the horse during a therapy session, the child receives the stimulus input from the movement of the horse that they may not be able to accomplish on their own. Riding a horse during a typical one half-hour session exposes a child to more than 3,000 repetitions generated by the rhythmic movements of the horse. This is important to our clients because riding a horse requires various postural responses that are below the cognitive level. This simply means that while riding a horse, the brain constantly receives sensory information. The brain remembers this information and, over time, learns to "automatically" signal the body how to respond appropriately. This all works together to help our clients improve neuromotor function, muscle strength, flexibility, balance, posture, coordination and speech. This type of motor learning takes place even with clients who are extremely cognitively delayed and it is significant to note that the improvement made in their motor function is usually permanent.

Although the goals are physical, hippotherapy certainly has positive effects on psychological, social, behavioral and communication skills.