Equine Facilitated Movement Therapy Strategies Explained

The word 'hippotherapy' comes from the Greek word 'Hippos', which means 'Horse' and so 'Hippotherapy' is actually treatment by means of the horse.

'Hippotherapy' is basically 'passive movement stimulation' or in contemporary hippotherapy it is often hands on physiotherapy while on the horse.

Another term 'Equitherapy' - which has been taken from the Latin word Equine or Equitation also meaning Horse or Horse Riding Therapy. 'Equitherapy', uses equipment and activities to promote cognitive applied motor function.

In this part of the program we may start off working passively, offering our help but our goal is for the rider to do what is required without the therapist's physical intervention or assistance.

In modern times in effect Hippo-therapy is often seen as a more physio based practice and Equi-therapy as a more occupational therapy based practise. Collectively known as 'Therapeutic Riding' or more technically we find the term 'Equine Facilitated Movement Therapy'.

Throughout history the man has been evolving with the horse. In fact the human anatomy is very similar to the anatomy of the higher mammalians e.g. the horse. With the horse transferring movement patterns to the rider's spine and pelvic regions, that duplicate the pattern man typically uses when walking upright, this being 'Gait specific trunk training'.

Children can cheat with muscle tone in other sports but the horse's reseating movement will not allow this to happen in equestrian sports.

Therapeutically why is just the horse's movement important? Vestibular stimulation only takes place voluntarily when the childs head is moved or when the child travels through space, so what better way to stimulate this rhythmically than on the back of a horse.

At the same time, the cranial nerves are attached directly from the vestibular system into the brain and to the eyes. So when we put the rider into different positions we create different forms of stimulation, eg when we gravitate blood (in our prone sessions) to the vestibular system we increase the impulses to the brain and so increasing cognitive function.

To be able to apply therapeutic riding safely and accurately takes a tremendous amount of knowledge. This knowledge can be said to find its roots not only in the love for and vast knowledge of horses and the ability to analyse their movement, but also within the correct application of principles that are complementary of physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychotherapy, speech therapy and remedial education that are imported into an equestrian setting. So with time we strive to promote these as an integrated whole - remembering that ability is created through diversity.

What the horses' movement has to offer

The inner structure of the ear with the arches in the body is the same for man and horse. So we are right to say, that 'we' and the 'equine' live and move in a common and complementing three-dimensional space. Throughout history the man has been evolving with the horse. In fact the human anatomy is very similar to the anatomy of the higher mammalians e.g. the horse.

With the horse transferring movement patterns to the riders' spine and pelvic regions, that duplicate the pattern man typically uses when walking upright, this being 'Gait specific trunk training'.