Hippotherapy in Adult Patients with Chronic Brain Disorders: A Pilot Study

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of hippotherapy for adult patients with brain disorders.MethodEight chronic brain disorder patients (7 males, mean age 42.4±16.6 years) were recruited. The mean duration from injury was 7.9±7.7 years. The diagnoses were stroke (n=5), traumatic brain disorder (n=2), and cerebral palsy (n=1). Hippotherapy sessions were conducted twice a week for eight consecutive weeks in an indoor riding arena. Each hippotherapy session lasted 30 minutes. All participants were evaluated by the Berg balance scale, Tinetti Performance-Oriented Mobility Assessment, 10 Meter Walking Test, Functional Ambulatory Category, Korean Beck Depression Inventory, and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. We performed baseline assessments twice just before starting hippotherapy. We also assessed the participants immediately after hippotherapy and at eight weeks after hippotherapy.ResultsAll participants showed no difference in balance, gait function, and emotion between the two baseline assessments before hippotherapy. During the eight-week hippotherapy program, all participants showed neither adverse effects nor any accidents; all had good compliance. After hippotherapy, there were significant improvements in balance and gait speed in comparison with the baseline assessment (p<0.05), and these effects were sustained for two months after hippotherapy. However, there was no significant difference in emotion after hippotherapy.ConclusionWe could observe hippotherapy to be a safe and effective alternative therapy for adult patients with brain disorders in improving balance and gait function. Further future studies are warranted to delineate the benefits of hippotherapy on chronic stroke patients.

Effects of Mechanical Horseback Riding Exercise on Static Balance of Patient with Chronic Stroke

“…Hippotherapy is a training method of enhancing functional ability of the patients whose motor function is damaged or body activity is limited through walking method of horse [7], and it is a kind of integrated therapeutic program of providing horse riders with an opportunity of postural training or muscle strengthening exercise by using horse movement [8].…”

Equine‐assisted therapies using horses as healers: A concept analysis

“…Homnick, Henning, Swain, and Homnick () published a study on therapeutic horseback riding as a complementary therapy. Sunwoo et al () stated that it was a safe and effective alternative therapy. Vermöhlen et al () described using horses as adjunct and complementary therapy, which in context fits the definition of integrative therapy.…”

Hippotherapy – an effective multi-profile treatment?

“…All the subjects were evaluated according to the Berg, Tinetti balance scale, a 10-meter walking test, Beck's Depression Inventory and the Hamilton Rating Scale before and after hippotherapy. The authors obtained results of significant improvement in walking speed and balance in comparison to the evaluation before the sessions, and these effects persisted for two months after the end of hippotherapy [13]. Other reports also present the effective impact of hippotherapy in the rehabilitation of people with gross motor disabilities.…”

“…hippotherapy. The vast majority of authors of the presented works also used the termhippotherapy [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,23,24,25]. According to the American Hippotherapy Association (AHA), undertaking activities in order to achieve improvement with the help of a horse is divided into Hippotherapy, therapeutic riding and Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP).…”