Hippotherapy Begins

Yesterday we had our second Hippotherapy and Momma remembered her camera this time! OK so what is Hippotherapy. Hippo is the greek word for horse so technically it's Horse Therapy. My logical husband often gets frustrated with this and has repeatedly asked for me to call it Horse therapy. However the legalistic in me continues to call it Hippotherapy.

What is Hippotherapy - it's a therapeutic treatment used with a wide array of patients. In our case it's great for core strengthening, sensory input and eventually it will help speech as well. The way a horse walks gives a repeated input to the child and horses have different gates which offer various types of input to different children's needs. All quite fascinating stuff.

Now your next question - does it work? Well the first week we tried it, I didn't see any significant difference. But yesterday after our second session, little man was the sweetest ever. Very calm, relaxed - overall we had a fabulous day! Was this because of Hippotherapy or just a coincidence - time will tell my friends.

Little man rides for 30 minutes with an assistant on each side a guide in front of the horse and our PT giving instructions. He rides forward a few rounds, backwards and side ways. Then he does some stop, stand and sit exercises. We're on the wait list for September so hopefully this will be part of our regular routine soon!

Here's a picture of our cutie pie riding backwards...more to come on our progress with Hippotherapy!