Physical Benefits

Our children are aged between 3 and 16 and have a variety of physical handicaps and learning difficulties. The most common is cerebral palsy which presents with increased muscle tone (spasticity) so that, during movement, opposing muscles both contract, the stronger muscles dictating the abnormal movement. Whilst there are varying degrees of spasticity, cerebral palsy is often accompanied by additional problems such as epilepsy, speech problems, lack of growth, abnormal posture, extra movements, athetosis (writhing arms) or coarse tremors.

However, most of the problems of our physically handicapped riders relate in one way or another to abnormal muscle tone. Muscle tone is the degree of contraction in a muscle required to support the body or part of the body against gravity or the degree of contraction required to perform a task. Some of our children have increased muscle tone (spasticity) so movement is limited and riding relaxes tight limbs, whereas others have too little tone (flaccid/floppy limbs) and we use riding to strengthen supporting muscles. Muscle tone can be affected by pain, stress, fear or anxiety which increases stiffness and tension. Smooth repetitive movements and low calm voices help decrease muscle stiffness.

The therapeutic advantage of a horse’s movement to the rider is of the continuous flow of movement through the rider’s body. The horse produces one thousand movements in three dimensions in ten minutes. There is therefore a requirement for the rider to:

• achieve balance
• retain balance – the rider must produce an equal and opposite movement to stay in balance
• regain balance
• not to fall off – we have two side-walkers when necessary who are there to stop the child falling off rather than holding the child on.

The rider has to accommodate to a variety of movements whilst maintaining his/her balance over a live moving horse. This helps the rider to achieve:

• Relaxation
• Balance
• Co-ordinationm
• Postural control
• Improved circulation
• Improved muscle power
• Enhanced self-esteem through a sense of achievement.

The children vary in the amount of help they require: some like to struggle and achieve whilst others need a lot of help and encouragement. Each child has an initial assessment with a physiotherapist to see what they are able to do, what assistance they need and whether special adaptations are required because of a problem specific to that child. For example, wheelchair-bound children need extra help getting to and from the mounting block in addition to help actually getting on and off. We have various pieces of equipment such as wide reins, looped reins, coloured reins or reins with stoppers periodically along their length which may help a particular child’s hold. We make use of sheepskin ‘saddles’ which enable a child to benefit from the warmth of the horse’s body to assist muscle relaxation and daps for added security of feet in the stirrups where muscle tone in the child’s lower leg is weak.

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