Hippo Therapy vs just horse riding

[2boyzmama]

We took Connor to a local stable and he got to ride a pony. He loved it! But it was so plainly obvious how much hypotonia he has (it's so easy to forget he has it because his strength to weight ratio is high, and he's fearless, so he climbs, jumps, scales, and leaps better than most 3 year olds) but when it comes to postural activities, he really has trouble.

I mentioned it to his Dev Ped and showed her a picture of him riding the pony (he even had trouble holding his head up with the helmet on!) and she suggested hippo therapy.

I'm looking into it, but in the meantime...talk to me about the difference between formal hippo therapy (which seems to be rather expensive!) and us just taking him to the stable frequently. We paid $3 for the little pony ride he got, and they have a volunteer program there where as I understand it, you can get some free riding if you volunteer a certain amount of time. I love horses, and would relish the opportunity to work with them again, so if I *had to* volunteer an hour or two a week so he could get some riding time, I guess I could do it

But is there something specific about formal hippo therapy that he wouldn't be getting if we just got him a pony ride frequently?

[karne]

Sometimes I'm unclear about the difference between therapeutic riding and Hippotherapy, but I think w/hippotherapy the instructor is essentially doing PT or OT, using the horse as a therapy tool. I don't think it is a learning to ride sort of program, whereas therapeutic riding encompasses more of the riding instruction piece. Do you have a PT/OT you could check in with about this? Sometimes insurance covers some of this, but not always.

We're a heavy duty equestrian family, so my bias is that ANY time spent on a horse, in relationship w/a large animal, and in a barn is valuable. BUT, if you have specific OT/PT goals you may want hippotherapy.

[Linda on the move]

I'm not sure what the difference is. DD has done lots of riding (lessons for years, horse camp etc) but we've never lived where there was hippo therapy.

The issues with having a special needs child *just ride* have been:

1) working with people who are great with horses but don't understand what is going on with DD

2) Being in a place that is really, really far from child proof. Most stables are VERY dangerous. Combining that with a sn kid and an instructor that doesn't really understand the ways in which said child isn't like other kids, it could be problematic.

3) Unpredicatable environment. A lot of horse people are kinda flakey -- not really good at schedules. DD really likes structure, she's a rigid thinker. A place that is *too* relaxed feels unpredictable to her.

still, it's been great for her sensory issues and we'll do again as soon as she agrees to. I think that the more profound the child's issues, the more important hippo therapy could be over just riding, and that the some instructors are FAR better with sn kids than others. We fired one instructor because she kept trying to push DD to do things that freaked her out. At this point it's easier for me to talk to instructors and explain what we are wanting from lessons and see how they respond.

I agree that any time spent on a horse is a good thing. Horses seem to understand kids in a special way.