United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I'm trying to get Nicole into a therapeutic riding program, partly sponsored by our parks and rec. dept. She'll be 6 y.o. when the program starts. I'm compiling a list of questions to ask the center. I know that they are NARHA accredited. For anyone who has experience with therapeutic riding, any questions you can think of that someone who hasn't been through this might not know to ask? Also, I'd love to hear any experiences anyone would like to share. Thanks.

~Tina, bpmom@comcast.net

anna 4 1/2 started riding about 6 months ago.. we found a stable near our house that does therapeutic riding, shes completely non profit charges us $20 for 30 minutes.. anna brushes the horse prior to riding, and then after shes done. they even help her clean the horses hooves. then we spend 20 minutes giving treats.. in the thirty minutes shes on the horse she learns how to direct the horse they do hair clips in the horses maine anna puts them in and reaches with her right bpi arm to take them out.. she also throws a ball in a Basket ball hoop while on the horse,this past saturday they had balls and orange cones anna would reach over to throw the ball in the cone, and they work with bean bags up on the horse, crossing over reaching back.. anna loves it.. at the very end they let her trot around a few times anna giggles the entire time..
their website www.healingwinds.org
the cool thing about this place is most of the horses were rescued,along with the other animals they have pot bellied pigs, a bunny, some geese, a dog, a few cats, and two very fat goats.. its like a petting zoo almost..
we do this in addition to anna regular therapy she gets once a week.. she starts swim lessons the end of the month, shes been buggibng me for them for at least a month so i know she really wants to learn to swim..lol..
thats been our experience with riding..
marg

Hi Tina:
Juliana has been riding for a couple of years now. We started with hippotherapy and are now hoping to move up to therapeutic riding.

Hippotherapy involves the use of an ot or pt who is additionally trained with the use of horses in therapy. We had a great ot for the two years we did it. We paid out of pocket for it, because it is a "therapy" and our insurance doesn't cover it. It cost $75.00/half hour. (Remember, this Long Island and everything is expensive). We are hoping that Juliana has progressed to therapeutic riding, so we can buy and package and the cost comes down. Therapeutic riding has a teacher in the ring, but no side walkers. It is one-on-one, so if the horse needs leading, the teacher does it.

Juliana loves riding. We also do the brushing and excercises in the saddle. They played concentration games, like "I Spy" to get her to talk. She also rode most of the time without a saddle, but with a special blanket. She asked for a saddle about a year and a half into it, so they started using one. That's when they started talking about moving her TR.

I think you just need to do the basic bpi education. Let them understand what her limitations are in terms of supination and shoulder/arm position. And what you hope to have her gain from riding.

Our goals for riding were: improved balance (incredible!), improved posture (fighting that scoliosis), better positioning of her affected arm, bilateral usage of her arms, supination (hahahhaa), elbow flexion (she tends to hyper extend), and bilateral use of her legs (Juliana had a tendency to put most of her weight on her right leg)

I think riding is a great therapy. They don't even realize how therapeutic it is!

claudia