Benefits of equine therapy for health

• April 25, 2024

Equine therapy is understood as a complementary and / or alternative therapy, fulfilling the role of psychotherapy or physiotherapy as required.

The horse is an inexhaustible source of stimuli, which favor motor coordination, attention, balance, reflexes and many other autonomous responses; also, it acts on the cognitive functions and especially on the emotional responses.

It is divided into three areas

1.- Hippotherapy. It is used in people with neuromotor and sensorimotor dysfunction.

2.- The therapeutic montage. It is applied to people with sensorimotor and psychomotor dysfunctions.

3.- Horse riding as an adapted sport.

The therapeutic effects of equine therapy are based on the following principles:

1.- The corporal heat of the horse (38 ° C) causes a favorable muscular distension of the pelvic belt and the lower limbs, mainly the ductores.

2.- The rhythmic impulses of the horse's back (90-110 per minute) are transmitted to the patient through the spine to the head, favoring muscle relaxation and dynamic stabilization of the trunk and head.

3.- The three-dimensional pattern transmitted by the horse to the pelvic belt of the rider is equivalent to the human walking pattern, it allows a regulation of muscle tone, the reduction of tonic reflexes, the dynamic stabilization of the trunk and the head, development of balance and psychomotor coordination. With certain exercises effects are achieved on the sensoperceptor system.

In half an hour of walking a rider practices around 2 thousand tonic adjustments. These movements produce vibrations that are transmitted by the marrow, often 180 oscillations per minute and that information is the same as the brain receives when a person walks. The horse is the only animal that produces this neurological stimulus.

Video Medicine: What is Equine Therapy? (April 2024).