Stable Connections
Occupational Therapy & Speech and Language Pathology
​Summer Sessions!    
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Incorporating equine movement (Hippotherapy) at Sagehill Stables

By working one-on-one with kiddos, both on horseback and in our child-focused clinic, Stable Connections occupational therapists and speech & language therapists help kiddos develop the skills for independence and quality of life. 

You do this on a horse?
Hippotherapy is used as a treatment tool for clients of all ages who are differently abled–neurologically, behaviorally, and/or cognitively. It is combined with conventional therapy treatments to elicit a response in our clients. The responses vary from elongating a tight muscle, to stimulating and facilitating muscle tone with hypotonia, to eliciting a desired outcome such as a client audibly saying “walk on”.

The gait we typically use for most therapeutic sessions is the walk. The horse’s movement is organizing to a client’s central nervous system (CNS)  through it’s repetitive and rhythmic nature. The horse's pelvis at a walk is remarkably similar to a human's and provides the opportunity for a client to learn how all parts of his/her body work together to sit, stand, walk, throw a ball, or make speech sounds. An average horse takes 120 steps per minute, creating 120 opportunities each minute for a client to improve neurological function and sensory processing.  This highly organized movement is not possible to replicate in a clinic or by any other apparatus or equipment.  

Receiving the movement transmitted by the horse’s pelvis – which results in weight shifts, balance reactions, and core/pelvis motions – helps the kiddos develop the skills – like motor planning, bilateral coordination, muscle strength, balance, visual perceptual, sensory regulation, weight-bearing, timing, and more – so essential for daily life. 

By applying different combinations of patterns (like circles, serpentines, spirals), gaits and speeds (slow walk, fast walk, trot), and riding postures (sitting facing forward, sitting sideways, on hands and knees, lying face-down, standing), our highly-trained therapists are able to provide precisely the sensory and neurological input each child will benefit from most.

Here’s how that might look in a treatment
  • Laying the neurological foundation for a normal gait pattern by sitting facing forward on the horse.
  • Strengthening motor-planning, timing, sequencing, and bilateral skills by passing rings back and forth with a therapist.
  • Strengthening extremities and refining balance reactions by kneeling or standing on the horse. In all of this, the horse is acting as a dynamic (moving) surface on which the child is being challenged by constantly receiving carefully-graded input.
 
Physical benefits include improvements in

  • Balance/equilibrium
  • Control of extremities
  • Coordination
  • Endurance
  • Eye-hand coordination
  • Fine motor skills such as writing, tying shoelaces, and snipping with scissors
  • Gross motor skills such as sitting, standing, and walking
  • Head and trunk control
  • Postural symmetry
  • Mobility
  • Motor planning
  • Muscle tone and strength
  • Range of motion
  • Respiratory control
  • Transitions
  • Trunk/core strength
  • Visual motor

 
Cognitive benefits include advancements in 

  • Attention
  • Expressing thoughts and needs
  • Self-regulation
  • Timing and grading of responses
  • Understanding of visual cues
  • Visual coordination


Sensory benefits include positive effects on 

  • Body awareness
  • Limbic system function related to arousal, motivation, and attention
  • Social interaction
  • Pressure grading
  • Proprioception
  • Sensorimotor function
  • Sensory integration
  • Tactile response
  • Vestibular input
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Expertise
All of our therapists are licensed to practice in Manitoba and receive additional training to work within the guidelines and best practices of the American Hippotherapy Association to safely and effectively incorporate the movement of the horses in a clinical setting. 
 
Services offered in French and/or English.
 
Limited spots available! For more information, contact Stable Connections:Phone: (204)-806-1618        Email: stableconnections.ot@gmail.com

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