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This is the second article in my series on hippotherapy in South Florida. On my second visit to Dimensions Achievements in Therapy`s location for hippotherapy in South Florida, Southwest Ranches, I was mounted on a female hippotherapy horse, Flash, named after the movie Flashdance. Unlike Chocolate Chip, the horse I rode on for my first hippotherapy session, Flash is thinner and has a narrower midsection. According to my hippotherapy therapist, Jane, Flash is also more smooth-gaited, making the transition between surfaces on the hippotherapy course easier to navigate. One new to hippotherapy might believe that riding a horse, with a narrower midsection, would make it easier for a person with balance issues to maintain their balance. In fact, it is harder for a hippotherapy client to maintain balance on Flash. The hippotherapy physical therapist, took me through some hippotherapy exercises, which focused on strengthening lateral muscles needed for balance. First, as part of my hippotherapy, a series of pylons were placed in the path of the hippotherapy horse. As I went around each one on the hippotherapy course, I raised my right hand and twisted the upper section of my body and turned my head and pointed to an object on the right side of the hippotherapy course. I then crossed my arm over the front of my body and pointed left to the top of the hippotherapy pylon. This hippotherapy exercise was repeated using my left hand and turning to the left and then crossing my left arm over my body to the right. Clearly, this series of hippotherapy exercises stimulated muscle activity as my sides were sore the day after my hippotherapy session. The second time around the hippatherapy pylons, my hippotherapy physical therapist had me reaching in front of me, with my arm just slightly off to the side and touching the top of the hippatherapy pylon. This hippotherapy exercise was much harder. One new to hippotherapy would be surprised to learn the intensiveness of such hippotherapy exercises as they are seemingly simple maneuvers. In technical hippotherapy terms, the goal for this hippotherapy session was to exercise the corpus callosum, the structure within the brain that provides communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The hippotherapy exercise of having my left hand reaching across my body`s midline to the right sends motor and sensory information to the brain, and then from the brain to the muscles. Based on pictures taken during my hippotherapy session, my hippotherapy physical therapist has determined that my left leg almost acts independent of the rest of my body. Though disturbing to say the least, future hippotherapy sessions will likely integrate my left leg back into my bodily movements. So, I guess you might say that hippotherapy has taught me that I have been having an out of body experience for the past seventeen years; well, at least it would appear that my left leg has been having that experience without the intervention of hippotherapy.
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