Horse riding can provide physical and psychological benefits

Shirlene Hoffman is a believer in therapeutic horse riding.

“The movement of the horse kind of mimics our movement when we’re walking,” Hoffman said. “When you walk, your muscles are moving a certain way. That movement of the horse, if it’s someone who is paralyzed, they’re getting that movement.”

Hoffman and her husband run Lazy H Riding Center, a therapeutic riding center in Geneva County accredited by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, or NARHA. The center, located between Slocomb and Hartford, is new with fall riding classes to begin Oct. 1 for children and adults. It’s one of six NARHA accredited therapeutic riding centers in Alabama.

Horse riding has been touted for years for its therapeutic benefits, especially for people with disabilities.

A horse’s rhythmic gait is said to help with balance, muscle strengthening, flexibility and even improve the heart and lungs. The idea of therapeutic riding dates back several hundred years. But horse riding as an actual therapy didn’t gain a following until the 1950s and 1960s.

Physical, occupational and speech therapists use horses today in a practice called hippotherapy. The horse is used as another tool to help patients.

Sumlar Therapy Services in Ozark provides hippotherapy for children. Kristin Sumlar, a physical therapist and executive director of Sumlar Therapy Services, said the practice has physical and psychological benefits.

Autistic children are suddenly held captive by the horse and begin to focus. Children who don’t speak, bounce up and down — some of their first words spoken on the back of a horse, she said.

“The motivation is so great,” Sumlar said. “There are so many ways to use it.”

While the basic idea is the same, there are differences between hippotherapy and therapeutic riding.

In hippotherapy, therapists have goals they’re working toward. They don’t teach patients how to ride a horse or take care of a horse. Patients do not control the horse. A horse handler leads the horse while the therapists walk alongside the horse and patient. At Sumlar, they use a round pen and no saddle.

“Everything we do on the horse is just an exercise to gain something else to help them in their daily lives and play skills,” Sumlar said.

But in therapeutic riding, the rider is completely in control of the horse. Learning to ride becomes the therapy.

“The movement of the horse just enhances their movements,” Hoffman said. “It brings them out both physically, and if they’re introverted, they start wanting to speak and wanting to participate.”

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For more information ...
Lazy H Riding Center
14716 E. County Road 4, between Slocomb and Hartford
(334) 886-3002

Southern Cross Ranch
6215 County Road # 55, near Headland
http://www.thesoutherncrossranch.com

Sumlar Therapy Services
193 Sam Lisenby Road, Ozark
(334) 445-6336