Registered office: Heather Lodge, Edlingham, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66 2BL, UK. Tel: 01665-574727, © 2011

HIPPOTHERAPY

To a large extent, the enjoyment and sense

of achievement clients experience comes

from the horse itself. Horses are large,

powerful animals; they are social and seek

Everything about them invites particularly

children to explore: their warm bodies, their

Importantly, our clients participate in

a “normal” physical activity which

takes place in an equestrian centre,

not a hospital or clinic. Both children

and adults tend to experience

hippotherapy not as a therapeutic

Hippotherapy is generally regarded as a highly enjoyable physical activity

by users of all ages.

It has important psychological benefits such as

increased confidence, a sense of achievement and self-esteem.

Hippotherapy is fun: Horses are unique in their ability to make therapy enjoyable

and patients motivated and engaged in the therapeutic process.

This should be celebrated, as the

motivation which hippotherapy

generates in people is a powerful factor

that increases its overall effects. People

only learn if they are motivated to learn.

There is general agreement among

rehabilitation specialists that the more

motivated people are, the more

successfully they learn new movement

skills.      

A young client who stands tall

and proud after his hippo-

therapy session holding “his”

pony by the rein.