hippotherapy
n. the therapeutic use of horses to help people with physical and developmental disabilities improve their balance, coordination, posture, and mobility. During each 30-minute hippotherapy session, the client sits or lies on the horse, and a therapist evaluates and positively influences the client’s neuromuscular responses to the animal’s movement while an equine handler adjusts its gait, tempo, and direction. One or two sidewalkers next to the horse accompany the client for safety purposes. The therapists who conduct such sessions are specially trained physical, occupational, and speech and language therapists who offer hippotherapy as part of their broader, occupation-specific spectrum of activities. The handlers themselves are hippotherapy-certified. The therapy is most commonly used for people with autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, spinal cord injury, stroke, and traumatic brain injury.
In addition to its physical benefits, it often improves the client’s affect, self-confidence, communication skills, spatial awareness, sensory integration, and social interaction. Hippotherapy is distinct from equine-assisted psychotherapy, which uses horses to help clients achieve personal and relational change. See also animal-assisted therapy.