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Hippotherapy

Hippotherapy is a treatment that uses the movement of the horse. It is one of the methods of animotherapy.
It is a complex rehabilitation method based on neurophysiological principles using horse for curative purposes. Its effects are complex as it influences rehabilitation, psychology and resocialisation.
Kinds of hippotherapy:
1. Hipporehabilitation - used in medicine, it is the most common kind of hippotherapy. It is based on the riding a horse and is included in the complex of measures concentrated on minimalising, or eliminating of physical or mental handicaps.
2.Hippotherapy is a treatment that uses the movement of the horse. It is one of the methods of animotherapy.
It is a complex rehabilitation method based on neurophysiological principles using horse for curative purposes. Its effects are complex as it influences rehabilitation, psychology and resocialisation.
Kinds of hippotherapy:
1. Hipporehabilitation - used in medicine, it is the most common kind of hippotherapy. It is based on the riding a horse and is included in the complex of measures concentrated on minimalising, or eliminating of physical or mental handicaps.
2. Curative – pedagogical riding – its purpose is to help the client create learning suppositions, support positive changes in behaviour, eliminate or reduce some mental disorders or sensory deficit.
3. Sports riding for the handicapped – based on the patient´s active control over the horse. Using special aids and special techniques, the patient (with the regard to his handicap) is taught how to ride a horse and finally he may also take part in the competitions.
The effects of the hippotherapy are complex; they include, e.g. normalization of the muscle tonus, body rhythmisation, coordination of movements, facilitation of sensory integration, balance improvement, re-education of speech, growing self-confidence, improvements in locomotory symmetry and adaptation, facilitation of creating new locomotory programmes, improved emotional relation to the exercise and energetic strenghtening of the patient etc.
Indications:
- in neurology: children with cerebral palsy, sclerosis multiplex, post-traumatic states, inflammation and degenerative processes, coordination disorders, walking, balance, sitting, active control of the head and trunk, locomotory stereotypes etc.
- in orthopaedy: scoliosis - Cobb angle of 25° - 30°, muscle dysbalance of different stage, after limb amputation, post-traumatic muscle cataplexy
- in psychiatry: non-compensation neurosis and psychosis, autists, drug addicts, psychotic patients, hyperkinetic children, chronic schizophrenics with deficit
- in internal medicine: in the third stage of rehabilitation after IM, essencial hypertension up to stage II, in chronic bronchitis, in obstipation, in obesity, in disorders of the glands with inner secretion
- in gyneacology: dysmenorea, funcional sterility
Contraindications:
In contraindications, strict individual approach is necessary. These include e.g. dizziness or seizure states in adults and their more serious forms in children, hydrocephalus, hernia of intervertebral discs with clinical symptomatology, scoliosis – Cobb angle over 25° - 30°, states after a spinal operation, clinical signs of active arthritis, aseptic necrosis of joints in the acute stage, higher risk of fracture, osteosyntheses of cominutive fractures, bone skull defects, serious cardiovascular diseases, decompensated psychosis and neurosis, patient’s tendency to selfdamaging and many others.
Of course, a contraindication is also a fear of horse, alergy to horse hair or the environment and also the age up to three years.
Hippotherapy is performed by a team of more people. They include both medical and hippological experts. Medical side is performed by a doctor, rehabilitation worker and an assistant. Hippological side is performed by a hippologist.
During the movement dialogue with a horse , the patient is surrounded by a lot of feelings. The patient is encouraged all the time to feel his own body, its movements and position of its parts. The children require a special approach in this sense. We have to concentrate their perception on the horse’s temperature , its movements, the movements of its neck, shoulders, etc. Through realising of these movements, children start to realise the movements of their own bodies.
During hippotherapy, the patients gain touch sensitivity but also deeper sensitivity, perception through tension, anti-tension and warmth. There is a spread of acoustic and optical stimuli.
High number of sensorial stimuli improves the ability of CNS to perceive the outer and inner environments and thus helps the person to respond adequately, which improves sensomotoric integration of the patient with the environment
Duration of hippotherapy depends on the individual.