What are the potential benefits of therapeutic riding? 

Therapeutic riding and other equine-related activities have been used for decades as a tool for improving the lives of individuals with physical disabilities and other special needs. Riding a horse gives one a sense of freedom, mobility and accomplishment. Many riders experience a personal connection to the horse that few sports can create.

The horse's natural three-dimensional movement is physically therapeutic. Riding stimulates the rider's truck and pelvis in a manner that simulates normal human walking. This stimulation produces specific physical changes in the rider, promotes normalization of muscle tone and helps develop better coordination, balance, flexibility, posture and body strength.

The rhythmic movement of the horse combined with games using letters, numbers, and objects of various shapes, sizes and textures are used to teach the client various academic and fine motor skills, including recognition of letters, numbers and shapes, counting, eye-hand coordination, visual tracking, directionality and spatial relationships, grasp and release, and identification of textures. 

Riding a horse is a unique experience that engenders feelings of freedom and accomplishment. The rider is highly motivated to repeat the experience and to exhibit significant effort to learn and continue. Motivation and effort are behaviors that are often lacking in regular special education settings but ones that are common in adaptive riding classes. Self-esteem soars while communicating with and riding this large animal.

The usual lesson incorporates a small team of rider, horse and volunteers. Within this setting, the development of both expressive and receptive language is encouraged. The student follows directions and sequences per the teacher's instructions and expresses his/her needs to the volunteer. There is also a special communication between the rider and the horse and between the volunteers and the horse.

When working with young children, the successes and changes in behavior are obvious. Children in the early intervention program have shown tremendous growth. We have witnessed a little girl say her first words and watched a little boy pat his horse to tell him to "Go" - his first communication to anyone or anything (we also held his mother while she cried tears of joy at this breakthrough moment in her son's life). The same child walked into his lesson unassisted this week when nine months ago his mom carried him into the lessons. A Cerebral Palsy girl has now gained enough flexibility to straddle her horse comfortably. These little miracles happen everyday at Hoofprints on the Heart.

Physical benefits:

• Improved balance
• Greater strength
• Better coordination, faster reflexes
• Muscle stretching
• Reduced spasticity
• Better range of motion
• Improved respiration & circulation
• Better sensory integration

Phsycological benefits:

• Greater self-confidence & sense of well-being
• Increased interest in outside world and self
• More abilities to take risk
• Patience
• Emotional control & self-discipline
• Sense of normality
• Greater sense of control of the outside world & self

Social Benefits

• Chance to make friends
• Development of respect & love for horses
• Expanded set of experiences
• FUN!!!

Educational Benefits:

• Sequencing, patterning, and motor planning
• Improved eye-hand coordination
• Better visual/spatial perception
• Remedial math & reading practice
• Increased differentiation

Want to find out more about therapeutic riding?  Check out these other resources:

• North American Riding for the Handicapped (NARHA)
• Exceptional Needs Network
• Bay Area Equestrian Network
• National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy
• Easter Seals of Northern California
• Xenophon Therapeutic Riding Center - Orinda, CA
• Project RIDE, INC - Elk Grove, CA
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