Equine Therapy

Description

Equine therapies are a kind of horse-assisted therapies practiced alongside traditional therapies for rehabilitation purposes to treat a wide range of physical and mental disorders.

Physical benefits have been noted in a wide variety of applications, including problems with posture, balance and general dynamic coordination, muscle tone and flexibility. Also, equine therapy has shown to be more effective than conventional therapy in treating trunk and hip muscle asymmetries and in improving gross motor development in people with these types of difficulties, as the horse has the ability to replicate human locomotion when this is on top of the horse.

From the mental benefits perspective, there is a significant amount of research referring to the benefits in people with socialization problems and behavioral disorders; with high risk of social exclusion; in young people undergoing detoxification for substance abuse; in cases of severe behavioral disorders in situations where behavioral treatments have failed; in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; in the improvement of communication and interaction behaviors in people with autism; and, in programs to improve social skills and conflict resolution skills.

There are also some research studies in the scientific databases that show evidence of the benefits of equine therapies in the treatment of emotional disorders among special need students; in teenagers with psychiatric episodes due to emotional disorders; in the treatment of anxiety disorders; in academic skills which are accessed through recreational activities such as the learning of numbers, letters and concepts; and in cognitive skills such as task sequencing skills, eye-hand coordination, motor planning, space orientation, attention, memory and multisensory integration; and also in increasing many people’s life quality.

Several papers have tried to explain why horseback riding can have multiple benefits. Most of the time, the focus goes to the rhythmic and moderate impulses transmitted by the horse to the rider, to the balance and coordination skills involved in riding, to the development of awareness skills needed to handle the horse as a purposeful activity, to the improvement of self-esteem favored by the feeling of control of the animal once the initial fears are overcome, to the benefits of simple communication with the animal, to the bond that can be established with the horse as an emotional living being, and to the benefit on general health and fitness that can report riding as a practice of a physical-sporting activity that takes place in a social and highly structured context. All participants in this activity must sign waivers and forms.