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-

obvious 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 outcome of the first six sessions

and to set goals 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.