HOPE Hippotherapy

01/02/2026

Hello February! 🌱
Lighter days are on the way and we are here for it!

One of the many wonderful parts of Hippotherapy is working in the supine position – lying on the pony’s back. This gentle position can bring:

✨ Relaxation
✨ Core strength
✨ Body awareness
✨ Better breathing
✨ Sensory regulation
✨ Calm and connection

All while building confidence and trust with our amazing therapy ponies 🐴

We have spaces available at HOPE Hippotherapy in Dummer on Wednesdays.

📩 DM or email hopehippotherapykids@gmail.com
to find out more.

30/01/2026

Healing. Hope. Hippotherapy hugs.

There’s something truly special about time spent with horses. The movement, the rhythm, the connection — it brings regulation, calm and relaxation for everyone around equines.

Hippotherapy taps into all of these natural benefits and goes one step further, using the horse’s movement purposefully to provide individualised, goal-led therapy. Every session is carefully tailored to support posture, balance, coordination, regulation and confidence.

A therapy like no other — gentle, powerful and led by the horse 🤍

✨ Spaces available
📩 Message to find out more or to book

29/01/2026

Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) & Hippotherapy

After SDR, children need ongoing, meaningful movement to help rebuild strength, balance and coordination.
This is where Hippotherapy can be a powerful part of recovery ✨

The three-dimensional movement of the horse:
🐎 Encourages active core engagement
🐎 Supports postural control and symmetry
🐎 Improves balance, strength and endurance
🐎 Helps translate hard physio work into functional movement
🐎 Builds confidence and motivation (because it’s fun!)

Hippotherapy complements traditional physiotherapy beautifully, helping children practise movement patterns in a dynamic, real-life way – not on a mat or in a clinic.

📍 Sessions available at Dummer, Hampshire
🕰 Wednesdays in term time
📩 Get in touch to find out more or discuss if Hippotherapy could support your child post-SDR
📧 hopehippotherapykids@gmail.com

Please feel free to share 💙
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27/01/2026

There’s nothing more powerful than hearing it from a parent who’s seen the change 💬✨

Hippotherapy is like no other therapy.
The movement, the connection, the engagement… it doesn’t feel like “work” to the child, yet their bodies and minds are working incredibly hard.

Engagement is key — and when a child is motivated, relaxed, and enjoying themselves, the progress often speaks for itself.

If you’d like to learn more or hear real experiences from families, I’d love to chat.

🐴 Spaces currently available
📍 Dummer, Hampshire
📅 Wednesdays (term time)
📩 Message me for details

Sometimes the best progress starts with a horse 💙 🇬🇧

25/01/2026

✨ Hippotherapy – how does it compare to other therapies? ✨

Many parents ask how Hippotherapy is different from physiotherapy, occupational therapy or sensory therapy.

🧠 In clinic-based therapies, children often work on one area at a time – strength, balance, sensory regulation or communication.

🐎 In Hippotherapy, the horse becomes the therapy tool.

The horse’s natural, rhythmic movement:
✔️ Activates core muscles
✔️ Improves balance and posture
✔️ Supports sensory regulation
✔️ Helps coordination and motor planning
✔️ Builds confidence and emotional wellbeing

And the amazing part?
Children often work harder for longer without realising they are doing therapy.

Hippotherapy doesn’t replace physio, OT or SALT – it enhances them, helping progress carry over into school, daily life and other therapies.

For many children, it’s therapy that feels meaningful, motivating and joyful 💛

📍 HOPE Hippotherapy – Dummer, Hampshire
🕰 Wednesdays (term time)
⏰ 12.15pm & 1.00pm sessions available

📩 DM me or email hopehippotherapykids@gmail.com to find out more.

🐴💚
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23/01/2026

🐴 Spaces Available – Hippotherapy 🐴

Grooming is an important part of our hippotherapy sessions. It helps our ponies stay comfortable and healthy, while giving children valuable sensory input, helping with regulation, confidence, and connection before they ride.

A calm, well-groomed pony provides the consistent movement needed to support balance, posture, core strength, and overall development.

✨ Spaces currently available
📍 Dummer, Hampshire
🕰 Wednesdays (term time)

If you think hippotherapy could support your child, please get in touch.

📩 Contact Helen
📧 hopehippotherapykids@gmail.com

🐴💛
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20/01/2026

All About Me

Hello, I’m Helen, the founder of H.O.P.E Hippotherapy (Horse Offering Physical Enrichment).

I have over 18 years’ experience working with children and families, alongside a lifelong passion for horses. I am also a mum of two, which gives me a deep understanding of how important it is to find the right support for a child — support that is not only effective, but enjoyable and confidence-building too.

Hippotherapy brings together the movement of the horse with clinically informed therapy principles to support children with challenges such as low tone, poor core strength, developmental delay, hypermobility, autism, and difficulties with balance, coordination, regulation, and posture. The horse’s rhythmic movement provides powerful sensory and physical input that cannot be replicated in a clinic setting.

At HOPE Hippotherapy, every session is child-centered, goal-focused, and carefully tailored to each child’s needs. Children often don’t even realise how hard they are working — they are too busy connecting with the horse, having fun, and building confidence.

Sessions currently run on Wednesdays during term time at Dummer, Hampshire, using carefully selected ponies who are calm, kind, and perfectly suited to therapeutic work.

I am passionate about giving children the best possible opportunity to reach their potential, through therapy that feels positive, motivating, and empowering — for both children and their families.

18/01/2026

It takes a truly special pony to be a Hippotherapy pony 🐴💛 — and Taffy is just that.

Taffy is calm, patient, kind and incredibly tuned in to the children she works with 🤍 He is steady, rhythmic walk provides the precise movement needed to support physical development, balance, posture and regulation. He is happy to work slowly, repeat exercises and stay focused in the school without rushing or becoming unsettled. He accepts different positions, equipment and helpers around him with quiet confidence, helping children feel safe and secure ✨

Robbie, on the other hand, is a fantastic children’s pony — fun, clever and full of personality 😄 But he loves to trot, jump and keep life exciting! He gets bored working slowly in a school and may become a little cheeky. That doesn’t make him any less wonderful — it just means Hippotherapy isn’t the right job for him 💙

Just like people, not every horse is suited to every role 🧠🐎 And that’s okay. We wouldn’t change Robbie for the world, and we’re incredibly grateful to have Taffy doing the job he was truly made for 🌟

✨ Spaces available
📚 Term time only

16/01/2026

🐴 More than just riding… this is Hippotherapy

Every photograph here tells a story of movement, connection and progress.
Through the gentle, rhythmic movement of the horse, children work on:

✨ Core strength
✨ Balance and posture
✨ Coordination
✨ Sensory regulation
✨ Confidence and emotional wellbeing

Hippotherapy uses the horse’s natural walk to stimulate the brain and body in a way no clinic-based therapy ever could. Each step of the horse mirrors how we walk, helping children build the foundations they need for sitting, standing, walking, writing and learning.

Our wonderful pony Taffy provides warmth, movement and motivation – making therapy feel like an adventure instead of hard work.

📍 Dummer, Hampshire
🗓 Wednesdays (term time)
⏰ 12.15pm & 1.00pm sessions available

📧 hopehippotherapykids@gmail.com

If your child finds traditional therapy hard or boring, Hippotherapy could be the joyful, powerful alternative they’ve been waiting for 💛

14/01/2026

Do you or your child have a fear of horses?
Please don’t let that stop your child accessing Hippotherapy.

At HOPE Hippotherapy, we go at your child’s pace. There is no pressure to get straight on a pony. Many children begin by simply meeting the pony, brushing, feeding, or walking alongside them — building trust, confidence and a bond before ever riding. For some children, that gentle relationship with a calm, kind pony is just as powerful as the movement itself 🐴

Our star pony Taffy is patient, loving and wonderfully in tune with children, making him the perfect partner for even the most nervous riders.

✨ Hippotherapy can help with:
• Core strength & posture
• Balance & coordination
• Body awareness
• Emotional regulation & confidence
• Sensory processing
• Motivation and engagement

📍 Location: Dummer, Hampshire
🗓 Sessions: Wednesdays during term time
⏰ Available slots: 12.15pm or 1.00pm
📧 Contact: hopehippotherapykids@gmail.com

If your child struggles with traditional therapy but loves movement, connection and being outdoors, Hippotherapy could be the gentle, powerful change they need.

Feel free to message or email to find out more 💛

14/01/2026

12/01/2026

🐴 How can a horse help your child walk better?

The movement of a horse’s walk closely replicates the movement of the human pelvis during walking.
This rhythmic, three-dimensional movement helps the body to build muscle memory, encouraging the brain and muscles to relearn more efficient walking patterns.

This is why hippotherapy can be so powerful for children with:
• low muscle tone
• hypermobility
• neurological conditions
• developmental delay
• poor balance and coordination
• difficulties with walking or posture

By sitting on the horse, the body is constantly making tiny postural adjustments — just like it should when walking on the ground — helping to improve:
✔️ core strength
✔️ balance
✔️ pelvic stability
✔️ walking quality
✔️ confidence and independence

📍 HOPE Hippotherapy
Based at Dummer RDA, Hampshire
🗓 Wednesdays (term time)
⏰ 12.15pm or 1pm sessions available

📧 hopehippotherapykids@gmail.com

Spaces are limited — please get in touch to find out if hippotherapy could help your child 💛

🐴