Hippotherapy in South Florida

On my third visit to Dimensions: Achievements in Therapy’s location for hippotherapy in South Florida, Southwest Ranches, I was again mounted on a hippotherapy horse, named Flash.

My hippotherapy physical therapist’s goal for this session was to work on improving my balance and proprioception - a person’s awareness of where their body is in space. Working on balance involves, among other things, strengthening the muscles in the pelvic region. According to the hippotherapy physical therapist, it is very common for someone, who has sustained a traumatic brain injury, to experience decreased strength in their pelvic region. Like others with similar injuries, my pelvis is tilted forward. By strengthening my pelvic muscles, and maintaining a more neutral pelvic position to aid in sitting more upright, improved balance is facilitated.

The hippotherapy horse guide and hippotherapy therapist led Flash through a series of figure eights around a hippotherapy course, which has what look like field goal posts laying across the course at angles. The purpose of this hippotherapy exercise is to utilize the horse’s motion of stepping over the goal post type structures to address three dimensional balance.

To achieve improved three dimensional balance, the hipppotherapy horse is guided through a series of both large and small figure 8’s. The smaller or tighter figure eight allows the hippotherapy client to sense the hippotherapy horse’s muscle contractions as they are much greater in tight figure eights. This is exactly what the muscles of a human must do for the human to turn when they walk.

While circling the hippotherapy course in tight figure eights, my hippotherapy therapist instructed me to lift my opposite hand from the side to which I was turning and then look in that direction, twisting my torso from the waist up. This exercise is designed to further increase the informational crossover between the right and left side of the brain across the corpus callosum. (For discussion of the role of the corpus callosum, see the second article in this series at http://www.tbisurvival.com/)

To improve a brain injury victim’s ability to process information while still addressing three dimensional balance, a hippotherapy client is directed to sit backwards on the hippotherapy horse. Riding backwards forces you to reorganize incoming sensory information. Luckily, although timid at first, I adapted quite quickly to the situation and needed minimal assistance.

One concluding note: Hippotherapy is considered to be a very controversial form of therapy. Defenders and detractors line up on both sides of the aisle. There are some, who say that hippotherapy is no more than a recreational exercise in the guise of physical therapy. Some health insurance companies will not even cover hippotherapy. From my limited exposure to hippotherapy, having participated in only four hippotherapy sessions, I cannot agree with the detractors. In just three weeks time, my hippotherapy therapist, my husband and I are already seeing results from hippotherapy. My walk is more symmetrical, my gait more even and my balance is more sure.

Source - tbisurvival.com

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