• Government
• Profession
• Business
• Opinion
• Health

• Health reform
• H1N1
• P4P
• EMRs
• Medicare
• Liability
• AMA House
• » More

• Book Excerpt
• Business Pitch
• Meetings
• » More

• Contract Language
• Ethics Forum
• In the Courts
• Practice Management
• Technically Speaking
• » More

• Issue dates
• Regions
• Health plans
• Sections
• News briefs
• Columns
• Editorials
• Letters
• Writers
• Other years

• Search tips
• E-mail alert
• Radio
• RSS
• Mobile
• Subscribe
• Institutions
• Staff directory
• Advertising
• Permissions
• Reprints
• News media
• Site guide
• Useful links
• About
• Premium
• Contact

Horse power: When riding turns into treatment

Hippotherapy has begun to attract attention from the medical community. One physician even owns a program.

By Greg Borzo, amednews correspondent. June 17, 2002.

• PRINT|
• E-MAIL|
• RESPOND|
• REPRINTS|
• SHARE

Whoever put up the old sign in a corner of the stable probably had no idea how it would apply so poignantly. "Time spent in the saddle is never wasted," it reads. And some say this adage sums up hippotherapy -- including the program run by the physician-owned EquiTherapy Center from the back arena of an elegant stable in suburban Chicago.

But many of the patients with developmental disorders, neuromuscular disabilities or skeletal impairments who receive hippotherapy here don't need to look to the sign for motivation. They're already fired up.

More likely, it's the therapists, volunteers and staff who take the message to heart. They are part of a growing, national effort to show hippotherapy makes a difference, at least for some patients some times.

Despite facing initial and widespread skepticism, HPOT supporters are increasingly having success demonstrating its value.

"Awareness and acceptance are growing," says Norman White, MD, medical director at Presbyterian Health Plan in Albuquerque, N.M., which recently began reimbursing for HPOT on a case-by-case basis.

"It may appear to have a recreational flavor, but hippotherapy holds immense promise of therapeutic benefit for a variety of conditions, when used in concert with other therapies," says Stephen T. Glass, MD, child neurologist in Woodinville, Wash. He refers patients for hippotherapy so frequently that it's printed on his prescription pad.

Hippotherapy uses the multidimensional movements of a horse to achieve specific therapeutic functional outcomes. Specially trained physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists use selected horses as mobile therapeutic treatment tools. [...]