Horse Power for Ability is the trade name of Horses for Health CLG. We are a not-for-profit organisation. Chair: Dr Dorothee Debuse
Registered office: Heather Lodge, Edlingham, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66 2BL, UK. Tel: 01665-574727, © 2011
Dr Dorothée Debuse, PhD
Lead Physiotherapist,
Chair of Directors, Horse Power for Ability
Dorothée is a Chartered Physiotherapist. After
graduating from Northumbria University in 1994,
she spent 10 years working for the NHS and in
private practice, nine of them in senior posts. She
has been a senior lecturer on the BSc (Hons) and
MSc Physiotherapy Programmes at Northumbria
University since 2002 and continues to be, part
time.
In 2006 Dorothée gained a doctorate with
her research study on “The effects of
hippotherapy on people with
cerebral palsy”. Since starting
her doctoral research,
Dorothée has
presented papers
and posters at
several national
and international
congresses, and
she has had several
hippotherapy-related
articles published in
international journals.
For information on
Dorothée’s publications and
presentations and other
research evidence on
Dorothée undertook her hippotherapy
practice education in Germany, the
world
leader in hippotherapy practice and
teaching, and completed it in 2008. However, her
interest in the use of horses to benefit people with
disabilities goes back a lot further.
Dorothée grew up in Germany. She has spastic
diplegia (cerebral palsy affecting her legs). When she
was eight years old she started hippotherapy, and
even at that age she was very aware of how beneficial
it was for her physically, aside from the sheer joy she
experienced on horseback and around horses. From
hippotherapy she soon progressed to “normal” riding,
and horses have been a big part of her life ever since.
Dorothée’s experiences as a patient motivated her to
make this powerful physiotherapy treatment with and
on the horse available to people who can benefit from
it.
Perhaps it is for this unique and successful
combination of attributes, that she has been invited to
teach hippotherapy in Norway and Japan, as well as
asked to write a book on hippotherapy by a well
respected German publishing company.
To hear a brief interview about hippotherapy Dorothee
gave on 25th March 2010 to BBC Radio Newcastle
click here, select “Alfie and Charlie at Breakfast”, press
play and slide the pink bar to 1.19.00 to get to the start
of that particular clip.
To see a BBC News report on our work, please
