Hippotherapy

With Jocelyn having cerebral palsy, one of the many therapies that she receives is hippotherapy. Many people do not know what hippotherapy is and what it can do for a person.

Hippotherapy, or horse therapy, is actually a form of physical, occupational and speech therapy all wrapped up into one entity. People usually ask me "why do they call horse therapy hippotherapy?" In Greek, hippos means horse, hence hippotherapy refers to therapy treatment aided by a horse.

Cerebral palsy is such a blanket term used for any damage or disorders, that can occur at any point in any person's life, which typically involves the brain and nervous system. Because these systems are affected, a person can experience difficulty with movement, speech, vision, hearing and sometimes cognition. The diagnosis cerebral palsy is a blanket term because there are so many different forms: spastic, athetoid or dyskinetic, hypotonic, ataxic, mixed, etc. It only gets more complicated when you break down the type of cerebral palsy into subcategories such as hemiplegia, quadraplegia and so forth.

In regards to Jocelyn, she has quadrapelgic spastic cerebral palsy which simply means all four of her extremities are affected. In the future, this diagnosis might change as she grows, develops and as everyone gets a clearer picture of how her diagnosis actually manifests. This diagnosis of course is not all inclusive with everything she has going on, and maybe at some point I'll go into all that, but as for now, I'll get back to chatting about hippotherapy.

During hippotherapy our therapist, which is the lovely Peggy Keller out at LMP Farms in Baldwin City, uses the horse as a therapy tool to improve Jocelyn's nerological function, sensory processing, strength, coordination and endurance.

The two horses that we have used are named Al and Webster. Al is the easier of the two horses as he has a more even gait, not as wide and more evenly tempered. We've only rode Webster a handful of times for a "challenge" as he is wider and has a longer stride (which means more trunk control is required and Jocelyn has to work harder). Sometimes Jocelyn is up for the challenge and other times not, so its nice having two different options.

Prior to our riding sessions, together we have learned that "revving-up" Jocelyn's body has significantly improved her performance once on the horse. Jocelyn requires a lot of additional sensory input than other children which means foods need to have bold flavors, drinks need to be colder, bath water warmer, activities need to be rougher (but safely of course) and so on. For purposes of prepping her for hippotherapy, Peggy puts her on these platform vibrators that she uses to change/correct the gait of her horses. I'm trying to find a way to make something like this for her at the house so we can benefit from it everyday, but I haven't came up with anything yet. Jocelyn loves deep pressure and vibration, so this works wonderfully!

{Jocelyn sitting on the vibrating platforms with Peggy}

One of the wonderful things about hippotherapy is that it is the only therapy option that provides a three-dimensional movement for Jocelyn which simulates the pelvis movement in humans when we walk. What does this mean? This means that the natural movement of the horse stimulates and encourages Jocelyn's pelvis to move like we want and which she often does not get otherwise.

Peggy does an exceptional job at grading Jocelyn's body movement and attempts to only offer the least support required. Again, sometimes Jocelyn is strong and coordinated needing minimal assist, and other days Peggy has to prompt her more often and with a greater degree of correction to get Jocelyn's body to perform what we are wanting.

Jocelyn rides in all different types of positions as well in an attempt to gain different goals. For example, she rides traditionally with facing forward and sometimes with arms at her side, or backwards to assist her with coming up over her pelvis more, or lying on her back and even on her tummy which you see below.

There are many things I continue to learn about hippotherapy that I find very interesting. I believe there is no one therapy that is or will be a miracle cure for our little sweetness, but I also believe that by putting our feet into a variety of therapy will only help her in body and mind.

Sometimes its hard to take pictures because the flash can easily scare the horses. This week I took took some short video clips to share, but only going to attach one. I'm always so proud Jocelyn's efforts and blessed we've been given an avenue for this particular type of therapy.