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
HIPPOTHERAPY
While there is evidence that horses have been valued
for their therapeutic effects throughout history, their
systematic use to benefit human health only started
in the 20th century.
Germany has the longest tradition, world-wide, of the
systematic and specialist profession-led therapeutic
use of horses to benefit humans. Hippotherapy has
been taught and practised there by specialist
clinicians since the late sixties. It is widely available
to children and adults with neuro-motor impairments,
and considered “the” treatment for children with
cerebral palsy. In Autumn 2008 850 German
physiotherapists actively practised hippotherapy (out
of some 1500 physiotherapists who qualified to
practise since specialist training began in Germany in
the early 1970s).
The situation in the UK is very different. Here
Hippotherapy has been practised for about 20 years,
but only by a handful of physiotherapists. Currently,
less than 20 physiotherapists are qualified to practise
hippotherapy, and not all out of these are actually
practising. Therefore, it is no surprise that hippo-
therapy is very little known and available to very few
people in the UK.
Here the Riding for the Disabled Association has
given disabled individuals the opportunity to
experience riding as a recreational activity for some
30 years.
To find out more about the differences between RDA
