Home | Health
Have you or someone you know suffered a stroke or a traumatic brain injury? Perhaps you have a child with cerebral palsy or autism. If that person is a close relative or loved one, you know how debilitating such an event can be. It can not only rob the person of their independence but their self-confidence. As that person struggles to return to some semblance of their previous life, they are constantly confronted by people who tell them, "you can`t do this anymore. It is too dangerous." Thankfully, help is here. It is called hippotherapy and there is a hippotherapy facility right here in south Florida that does it. The company is called, Dimensions: Achievements in Therapy. It is actually made up of two facilities, a state of the art clinic located in Aventura, which houses, among other things, a sensory gym and both a stationary and a dynamic rock climbing wall. Dimensions second facility for hippotherapy is a horse farm, located in Southwest Ranches. It was this hippotherapy facility that I stumbled upon. It consists of about 2.5 acres, with a stable that houses four hippotherapy horses and a hippotherapy pony, two arenas and a track, plus a sensory course for children or adults with sensory disorders. The hippotherapy staff there is terrific. I met Maurice, who maintains and prepares the hippotherapy horses and one of the hippotherapy occupational therapists (OT). In all, there are five occupational therapists, five speech therapists and two physical therapists at this hippotherapy center. The hippotherapy staff, as a whole, appear friendly, caring and conscientious. The same can be said of the hippotherapy physical therapist, Jane Burrows. Jane Burrows is well qualified in hippotherapy in that she has over 25 years of experience as a physical therapist. "Hippotherapy from a physical therapy perspective," Jane notes, "is nothing more than using the three-dimensional movement of the horse to promote three-dimensional movement in the hippotherapy client." In other words, by placing a person with extra-sensory and balance deficits on a hippotherapy horse, that person over time is able to map the hippotherapy horse`s gait, the way the hippotherapy horse shifts his body, and how the hippotherapy horse moves his hips from side to side, with the eventual goal of reestablishing normalcy to the hippotherapy client`s movement. Jane commented that hippotherapy is appropriate for both adults and children, but that hippotherapy for children is more common. Of the total number of clients that the hippotherapy facility treats, 90% are children and only about 10% are adults. My first hippotherapy session was on Friday, February 29, 2008. Jane put me on the hippotherapy horse, Chocolate Chip. (For a continued discussion on what goes into the decision as to which hippotherapy horse to use for a particular hippotherapy client, please see subsequent articles in this series.) Jane placed me on Chocolate Chip, because she has a broader girth, enabling a hippotherapy client to maintain balance easier. She said that as my balance improved, she would transfer me to other horses.
Article Source: http://www.articledestination.com
To view photographs of the hippotherapy center, please visit www.tbisurvival.com/Hippotherapy-in-Florida.com. There, you will see how hippotherapy horses are mounted, me sitting on the hippotherapy horse, and me doing some maneuvers on the hippotherapy horse to allow my hippotherapy therapist assess my balance deficits. You can also read subsequent articles in this series on Hippotherapy in South Florida.
Please Rate this Article 5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
Powered by Article Dashboard
