Big Stride Therapy specializes in providing occupational therapy for special children using the movement of the horse and equestrian activities during our occupational therapy sessions. Using hand chosen therapy horses, dedicated volunteers, and the loving support of families, we achieve incredible results with our very special children. Hippotherapy is a physical, occupational, and speech-language therapy treatment strategy that utilizes equine movement as part of an integrated intervention program to achieve functional outcomes. Equine movement provides multidimensional movement, which is variable, rhythmic, and repetitive. The horse provides a dynamic base of support, making it an excellent tool for increasing trunk strength and control, balance, building overall postural strength and endurance, addressing weight bearing, and motor planning. Equine movement offers well-modulated sensory input to vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile and visual channels. During gait transitions, the patient must perform subtle adjustments in the trunk to maintain a stable position. When a patient is sitting forward astride the horse, the horse's walking gait imparts movement responses remarkably similar to normal human gait. The effects of equine movement on postural control, sensory systems, and motor planning can be used to facilitate coordination and timing, grading of responses, respiratory control, sensory integration skills, and attention all skills. Specially trained therapy professionals evaluate each potential patient on an individual basis to determine the appropriateness of including hippotherapy as a treatment strategy. The therapy professional works closely with the horse professional to manipulate various aspects of the horse's movement, position, management style, equipment and types of activities to generate effective remediation protocols and to promote functional outcomes. Hippotherapy as a Treatment Strategy:
[General indications for hippotherapy]
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Cerebral Palsy
- Developmental Delay
- Genetic Syndromes
- Learning Disabilities
- Sensory Integration Disorder
- Speech-Language Disorders
- Traumatic Brain Injury/Stroke
Impairments:
- Abnormal muscle tone
- Impaired balance responses
- Impaired coordination
- Impaired communication
- Impaired sensorimotor function
- Postural asymmetry
- Poor postural control
- Decreased mobility
- Limbic system dysfunction related to arousal and attention skills.
