Many will wonder what Equine Therapy is, what it is for. Alternative therapy? Therapeutic horses, perhaps? Horse riding? What does this word encompass? In the social imagination we tend to believe that taking a horse ride is doing “Equine Therapy”, but many ideas would escape us if we thought only about this, since there are scientific studies that delve into the innumerable healing properties of this practice. Equine Therapy involves extensive and invaluable work to improve the quality of life of human beings.
To go even deeper into this topic, I interviewed the graduate, colleague and personal friend Jésica Arlettaz, who at her young years is a child and adolescent psychologist and teacher at Secondary School No. 20 “Rosario Vera Peñaloza” of Oro Verde, who also She has had direct experience in therapeutic work with these giant quadrupeds, having spent two years as an instructor at the La Delfina Medical Equine Therapy Center in the town of Oro Verde, Entre Ríos, Argentina.
Therefore, Jésica, clarify a couple of points for us:
What is Equine Therapy?
Equine therapy is a relatively new type of therapy. It does not simply consist of “taking a horse ride” as many will deductively imagine by associating the words EQUINE = horse and THERAPY = treatment, rehabilitation. Basically it can lead to several branches in which you can work, where the factor that never changes is the horse but the objective for which it is used does. Among them we can name Sports Equine Therapy, Horse Riding, Social Equine Therapy…
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And which of all of them are you going to tell us today?
The Equine Therapy that I am going to tell you about today is specifically “Medical Equine Therapy” or “Hippotherapy”, which is based on interdisciplinary work in pursuit of people’s well-being and health. Medical Equine Therapy, unlike others, is one that is carried out “following a treatment plan designed by a doctor who has knowledge about disabilities and their consequences—it is important that this be a neurologist, traumatologist, general pediatrician, physiatrist, geneticist—, and “maybe it must contain knowledge in Equine Therapy,” as Suárez (2010) explains in his book Manual of Equine Therapy. Although the fact of riding a horse in itself has natural properties for our health such as thermotherapy or massage therapy (which I will tell you what it is later), the purpose for which the horse is used in this case is to “ rehabilitate”. “Rehabilitation is aimed at neuromotor, traumatic, degenerative pathologies…”, as Suárez explains it well.
Nature, the smell of the countryside relaxes, relaxes, reduces anxiety
From practice itself, how does it work?
The patient rides a horse with a person who, in the jargon of Equine Therapy, is called an instructor, who is generally a professional from some discipline linked to health, be it a kinesiologist, psychologist, occupational therapist… the order is that he has knowledge in this area. The instructor is the one who rides a horse with the patient-rider and is in charge of accompanying him during the session (approximately 45 minutes long) and executing the treatment plan designed by the doctor. In this case the horse must always go at a pace and never walks alone, but is led by a petcero, who fulfills the function of responding to the instructor’s orders and guiding the animal to where the latter suggests, making stops in some posts on the property to carry out activities. In this sense, if the doctor observes that the patient has some motor difficulty in the upper limbs, for example, activities will be carried out with different elements on top of the horse to reinforce and stimulate this aspect: raising and lowering elements with the arms, hip rotation together with the arms, manipulate different objects such as balls and pins, articulated movements, etc. Many times we work on two aspects simultaneously, neuromotor and psychological, such as when we stimulate fine grasp by manipulating brooches at the same time as we stimulate attention and concentration by asking the patient-rider to classify said brooches by color and shape, for example. Basically, the trend is always to work interdisciplinary.
That is, it’s not just about getting on a horse. It’s much more complex than that.
Completely! It is very exciting and enriching. Here we dispel a first myth.
How has your experience been in this field, particularly in La Delfina?
I have had the beautiful experience of working with children who, in addition to suffering from neuromotor difficulties, presented psychological problems such as attention deficit, hyperactivity, autism spectrum disorders, and maturational delays. From the psychological level, in addition to the aspects that I mentioned previously, the aim was to strengthen the child’s self-esteem, stimulate his language and communication, recognition and self-image with elements such as a large mirror in the riding arena, as well as with educational games and cooperative games. and integrative, etc. In itself, for these children, getting on a horse is already an extremely positive experience, and we find a lot of emotions, from those who from the first day create a close bond with the animal and take ownership of it in such a way that They consider them “their horse”, even those who, faced with their difficulty in expressing their emotions, transmit their gratification to us through the anxiety they express when they see the animal approaching at the time of mounting. It’s very exciting!
From a psychological point of view, what is the significant importance of working with these patients in a natural and open environment as opposed to offices with four walls and, if we are lucky, with a fan?
I think that from a psychological point of view it is extremely important. On the one hand, we have to take into account that the child, adolescent, or adult who rides is carrying out therapy in a natural and equestrian environment, different from that of an office, which is an artificial, closed environment with little possibility of movement. This in itself has a positive impact on people’s health. Just as we often go for a walk to clear our minds after an intense workday, this practice serves the same function. Nature, the smell of the countryside relaxes, relaxes, reduces anxiety.
On the other hand, there are countless activities that we can do, from games that involve interacting with other people, whether with the doctor, orderer, instructor or other patient-riders who are in the middle of their session, to contact with the animal that has a healing power in itself. As well as the importance of the limits and habits that each patient-rider incorporates into each Equine Therapy session, since within the property, for example, they must respect their shift, schedule, the horse’s rest moments, and not enter the property when there is another patient-rider in session, etc.
How does that genuine bond that exists only between subject-animal, especially in the smallest ones, hold something mysterious? Did you particularly observe any progression or improvement in the many patients who passed through the La Delfina center in terms of this very particular link?
Clear! We cannot ignore the fact that getting on a horse for a child, adolescent, adult, involves an important meaning in itself. From a psychological point of view, this is one of the many health agents: the horse-rider bond. In this sense, what is promoted is not the link with professionals but with the horse. The merit belongs entirely to the animal! We believe that this link is the driving bridge for the rehabilitation and well-being of patient-riders. In a certain way we can say that it influences by strengthening self-esteem and promotes the development of communication, since the horse, being a large, powerful animal, generates in itself a feeling of omnipotence in the face of adversity. Think of a child who has never walked or been able to move on his own and suddenly finds himself on top of this animal, which gives him the power to move almost anywhere!
The merit belongs entirely to the animal!
Many times we have made the mistake of thinking that a child with autism who we observe does not speak or look at us, would seem to not communicate anything, but the interesting thing about the experience in these cases is that a “tantrum”, a scream, a gesture, He communicated much more to us than his words and gave us ideas about how to work with them, how to address their problems. In this sense, we have observed many advances in children who had a diagnosis of autism, for example, but who nevertheless, when they arrived at the riding arena and mounted their horse, their face transformed, they improved habits, incorporated limits, gesticulated expressing emotions… as well as improvements. at a motor level in the cases of children with cerebral palsy who corrected their scissor gait thanks to riding the horse’s withers, combating sequelae and improving quality of life.
What types of specific pathologies can be treated with this therapy? What natural health properties does the horse have?
Many. From neuromotor pathologies to psychological and psychiatric conditions. In this last field we must be cautious and pay attention to whether the patient-rider is properly controlled by a treating professional, that is, the primary professional, and in some cases medicated correctly.
Regarding the natural properties, it could be said that Equine Therapy is based on three principles of action: thermotherapy (the horse transmits body heat to the rider), massage therapy (the horse transmits rhythmic impulses from the back to the rider) and walking. multidimensional of the forelimbs (forward-backward, up-down and right-left), movement similar to that of the human pelvis when we walk. This last principle is very significant for a patient who never walked, for example; since in a certain way when moving on top of the horse it incorporates the imprint of heterolateral gait, similar to that of human walking.
From psychological therapies, for a child with Autism or Down Syndrome, for example, do you think that the application of Equine Therapy is enough to see progress or is it advisable to complement it with other therapies?
The truth is that I think your question is very good. The reality is that in this sense it is worth clarifying that Equine Therapy is a complementary therapy to other treatments, in other words Equine Therapy is SUMMATIVE. Of course, a child with Equine Therapy alone will not cure his pathology or motor difficulty, but he will probably make some progress. That is why Equine Therapy is always suggested within the framework of other treatments to reinforce, complement, add….