Purpose
'Healing By Horseback' provides speech, physical and occupational therapy services to individuals with disabilities in Northwest Arkansas. Benefits of Hippotherapy are seen in a variety of diagnoses/impairments:
Cerebral Palsy
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Sensory Processing Disorders
Down Syndrome
Dyspraxia
Social/Communication Delays
and more...
Hippotherapy: Speech, Physical and Occupational Therapy
Hippotherapy refers to how occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology professionals use evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning in the purposeful manipulation of equine movement to engage sensory, neuromotor, and cognitive systems to achieve functional outcomes.
Professionals may use a horse as a treatment tool within their therapy session, just as they might use a ball, balance beam, physio ball or toy. Horses are carefully chosen for their temperament and the type of movement they produce. All are specifically trained for their unique role within therapy sessions and are guided by professional horse handlers, which optimizes safety and effectiveness.
Hippotherapy & Therapeutic riding: What's the difference?
Hippotherapy
Completed by professional therapists in conjunction with a trained horse handler
Horse's movement is essential to assist in meeting therapy goals
Goal is to improve neurological, physical, cognition, coordination, organization and attention level for daily tasks
Billable through insurance as (ST, PT, or OT)
Therapeutic riding
Completed by trained horseback riding instructor with volunteers
Horse's temperament is essential to learning riding skills
Provides social, educational and sport opportunities in recreational horseback riding lessons for individuals with disabilities
Not billable through insurance