Therapeutic Riding Activities

When sitting on a horse, your attention is involuntarily drawn into the moment, with countless positive stimuli and we all know that energy flows where attention goes. –M Olivier

Riding is a proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitative technique

Therapeutic riding is a broad term that is used to describe a number of different treatment strategies that use the horse as a medium of therapy.  Namely, hippo-therapy, developmental riding therapy, psycho-educational vaulting and remedial riding, and riding as a sport and a skill for the disabled/riding for the disabled.

Hippo-therapy is an extension of physiotherapy where the movement of the horse stimulates the passive client psycho-motorically, it falls under the medical model (Strauss, 1995).

Developmental riding therapy, uses the principles of hippo-therapy and many different neuro-developmental exercises to stimulate and emphasizes an individual’s psychosomatic entirely (Spink, 1993), it starts to move away from the pure medical model and begins to move into the field of remedial riding and psycho-educational vaulting.

Psycho-educational vaulting and remedial riding, use principles of neuro-development, remedial education and psycho-development in therapeutic strategies.  Typically these forms of therapy have developmental, psychological, social and educational goals.

Riding as a sport and skill for the disabled or riding for the disabled involves teaching riding to disabled individuals, being aware of the therapeutic benefit.  The Special Olympics and the Para-lympics provide competition opportunities.

The potential value of Animal Facilitated Therapy as a holistic therapy is huge; as are the possibilities for therapeutic riding.

The aim is not to expect miracles, but to remember that riding therapy can help the client to develop physically and psychologically with a better self-esteem, independence, increased motivation, a sense of achievement, affiliation, the need to be needed, play and humor, the stimulus to be busy and education.

The movement can, by its effect replace any means of therapy, but no other therapeutic measure is good enough to replace movement -Clemens Tissot

In essence, therapeutic riding is concerned with the effect of the horse’s movements on the rider.

This therapy works, because of the powerful movement-dialogue between man and horse.

All muscles of the human movement apparatus are mobilized during riding.  Thus the physical benefits, especially in therapeutic riding, for neuromuscular rehabilitation.

Velocity, centrifugal and centripetal forces as well as swinging movements are transmitted to the rider.  The simultaneous sideways and forward motions of the hips of the horse and rider produce alternating rotational movements.  This movement of the horse transfers movement patterns to the rider’s body center, to the lumbar spine and pelvic regions, duplicating the pattern man typically executes when walking upright (Gait specific trunk training).

The communication of all the horse’s swinging impulses is the key to hippo-therapy.  All these impulses stimulate movement responses that correspond to the physiologically correct movement patterns of man.  The rhythmic forward movement of the horse’s walk is never clockwork regular; the smallest deviations in the walk sequence – caused by the balancing movements of both the horse and rider – are registered as minimal changes and elicit altered movement responses in the client.

All movements are centrally controlled in the brain. The brain does not store isolated muscle functions, but rather movement sequences and thus movement patterns.  If movement patterns are lost centrally, the respective brain part cannot program new movements, despite its nerve cell reserves.  Through the loop of reciprocal peripheral-central influences, movement combinations can be centrally integrated.

The correct therapy process allows the client to perceive normal functional reactions and learns functional movement patterns.  When moving with the motion of the horse the client experiences a ‘handling’ through the horse.  The horse provides thus an opportunity for strong psychomotor stimulation.

The potential value of therapeutic riding with its psychological, social and physical benefits are huge…

Psychological Benefits

• Promotes relaxation & body awareness.
• Builds self-confidence & encourages independence.
• Promotes decision-making & forethought.
• Improves memory & concentration.
• Offers personal challenge & a sense of achievement.
• Increases motivation & risk-taking in a safe environment.
• Promotes a general feeling of well-being & fulfil the need to be needed.
• Allows contact with animals & understanding their welfare.
• Teaches the value of safety rules & discipline.
• Fulfils a need to be in close proximity to living things.
• Stimulates activity, as the habits of animals can have an orientating influence.
• Serves as an educational tool.

Social Benefits

• Develops language & communication skills.
• Encourages reading & speech skills through games.
• Stimulates social interaction.
• Helps with clinical exercises in a pleasant environment.
• Offers opportunities to participate & compete in sport.
• Creates topics of conversation.
• Promotes self-care & increase co-operation with care-givers.
• Physical Benefits:
• Improves balance & posture.
• Develops hand-eye co-ordination.
• Develops fine & gross motor skills.
• Teaches sequencing of actions.
• Offers new mobility & access to new areas.
• Offers sensory stimulation through activities & surroundings.
• Offers neuromuscular rehabilitation.
• Increases life expectancy.
• Helps with recovery from & coping with illness.

Additional Benefits for the Mentally Handicapped

• Helps with perceptual motor skills as spatial concepts are easily taught through riding lessons.
• Students get an awareness of ‘left’ and ‘right’, colours and parts of the horse and tack
• The up-down movements of a trotting horse helps with gross motor skills, as well as spatial and directional awareness.
• Disabilities can be a great handicap because restrictions are placed on the total life pattern. Exciting activities, like swimming and riding a bicycle, are usually forbidden. This protection can cause a sense of anger and frustration.
• They are also frequently left out of competitive and sporting activities. They can often go through life with a sense of failure and frustration.
• Horse riding can redress this balance; giving them a chance to succeed and build a relationship with a gentle, loving animal – a relationship that doesn’t need speech for communication.
• The social occasion of a riding lesson offers opportunity for practicing good manners, learning to wait one’s turn, following instructions, learning non-verbal communication and learning to handle success and failure.
• Riding also helps the disabled child to become as independent as possible, as well as achieving happiness and social acceptance.

According to ‘The Principles of Riding’ of the official instruction handbook of the German National Equestrian Federation:

• ‘Handling and riding horses require certain qualities in the rider. These qualities become further established and developed as training progresses.
• For this reason, riding can be a very valuable character-building experience, especially for children and young people.
• Apart from a love for animals and the ability to empathise, the rider needs patience, self-control, fairness and discipline.
• The rider is responsible for his equine partner. He must be constantly prepared to learn and he should be ready to look for faults first in himself and not in the horse.
• More demanding levels of horsemanship require skill, strict body control and powers of concentration.

There are a few contra-indications

Pre-cautions to riding

If an individual has any of the following conditions, a physician should be consulted concerning the suitability of riding.

• Spinal instability, including subluxation (partial dislocation) of cervical vertebrae.
• Severe osteoporosis, involving brittleness of the bones and hence the possibility of fractures.
• Seizures which are not controlled by medication.
• Pathological fractures arising from a condition, such as osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bones)
• Acute stages of arthritis.
• Periods of exacerbation of multiple sclerosis.
• Open pressure sores or wounds
• The use of medication that induces physical states that makes riding risky and/or inappropriate.
• Haemophilia, a congenital condition of the blood characterised by haemorrhages (bleeding).
• The individual is taking anticoagulant medications (blood thinners).
• Atlanto-axial instability.
• Spondylolithesis (subluxation of the lower lumbar vertebra on the sacrum).
• Coxarthrosis (degeneration of the hip joint) – riding causes too much stress on that joint.
• Detached retina of the eye.
• Acute herniated intervertebral disk, which may press on spinal nerve roots.
• Complete quadriplegia, occurring as the result of a spinal cord injury.
• Structural scoliosis greater than 30 degrees, excessive kyphosis (rearward increase of the curvature of the thoracic spine) or lorsosis (increased forward curvature in the lumber spine), or hemivertebra (a congenital defect in which one side of a vertebra is incomplete).
• Dislocation, subluxation or dysplasia (abnormal development) of the hip(s) with significant restriction or asymmetry.
• Any condition that the instructor, therapist or physician does not feel comfortable treating.