OUR SERVICES

HIPPOTHERAPY

As with most other physiotherapy services, individuals can either self-refer to hippotherapy, or be

referred by their GP, consultant, case manager or therapist. For a referral form, please contact us.

We will aim to respond to people's contact via telephone or our website within two working days.

Following initial telephone and/or e-mail contact, the service to patients starts with an initial

physiotherapy assessment.

The initial assessment

is up to 1.5 hours long and includes the

opportunity for patients and carers to meet our

horses. It is a neurological and hippotherapy-

specific physiotherapy assessment

   -  to establish whether the patient is likely to

      benefit from hippotherapy

   -  to establish whether there are any contra-

      indications or precautions to hippotherapy

   -  to establish a baseline against which we

      can compare progress

   -  to understand the patient's individual needs

      and aspirations

   -  to be able to tailor treatment appropriately.

We recognise that therapeutic outcomes are

only successful if they matter to the individual

concerned. For this reason, at the end of the

assessment, we work with individual clients and

their carers to negotiate goals for hippotherapy that are both meaningful to our clients and

realistic. Together with our clients we review these goals, as well as their response to hippo-

therapy, on an ongoing basis. 

Whenever possible we aim to use reliable and valid outcome measures, so that we can be

confident that we can measure the effects of hippotherapy and communicate clients'

improvement to others, as appropriate.

We recommend that clients have a block

of six hippotherapy sessions. While some

clients may notice an immediate

improvement in their movement ability after

one session, we do not really expect to see

lasting change with any less than six

treatments. It is also to ensure that they get

used to the people, the setting and the horse.

While we expect that most clients will notice a

lasting improvement after six sessions, many

clients will benefit from several courses of six

hippotherapy sessions to maximise their

improvement.

Depending on the individual's response and

level of fatigue, each hippotherapy treatment

session is between 20 and 30 minutes long

including mounting and dismounting.

The hippotherapy sessions are tailored to the

needs of individual clients. This means that,

within the abilities of each individual, we will

work towards maximum movement stimulation

and facilitation, but without over-taxing a

person's physical ability or confidence.

The hippotherapy sessions take place in a

20x40m indoor riding arena and are facilitated by

a chartered physiotherapist with specialist post-

graduate training in hippotherapy. She works with

a support worker and a horse handler who have

both received specific training.

For individuals from the region once-weekly

hippotherapy sessions are the most obvious, and

probably the most convenient, method of delivery.

However, we appreciate that people from further

afield may want to benefit from hippotherapy here

at Horse Power for Ability. Therefore, we do our

best to arrange residential courses of treatment

on an individual basis.

For this, we collaborate with Dene House Farm, a

great local family business which provides truly

accessible accommodation with excellent

facilities in beautiful Northumberland countryside.

Please contact us to discuss the possibility of a

residential course of hippotherapy.

The re-assessment

At the end of the six hippotherapy treatments,

patients receive a follow-up assessment of up

to 1.5 hours. In this assessment the original

goals will be reviewed and the outcomes of

hippotherapy assessed.

Patients will be reassessed after 6 sessions

regardless of whether they continue to have

hippotherapy with us or not. This is, because it

is important to review and document progress

at regular intervals.

If the block of six hippotherapy sessions is to be

followed by another block of six, the follow-up

assessment will be used both to assess the

for the next six sessions.

Whenever possible, and with the

agreement of the client and his/her carers,

we strive to work in partnership with others

involved in our clients' care. This is to make

sure that everybody involved in the care and

therapy of an individual can work towards the

same goals and become more effective in

achieving them.

For this reason, we are keen to share the

findings of our assessments, goals and

progress reports with other therapists, carers,

support workers and case managers. For

confidentiality reasons, we will only ever do this

with the client's and/or their carers' permission.

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