HORSES AND HUMANS:
THERAPEUTIC RIDING
PATTI KORTCAMP (Heartland's School of Riding, Overland Park, Kansas: We
have 14 horses, they've all been donated. Every single one of them were
privately owned. Many of them were shown and people just loved them, and
maybe they went off to college or maybe the horse gets lame when they
jump, and so they fit in here at He artland's. And we put them through
about a 3-week test before we accept them.
DONN TAYLOR: The biggest thing is we need a very gentle, easy-going horse
that has good movement, so his motion is almost as perfect as it could get
so that when the rider is riding, he is flowing right along with the
horse's movement. So the movement is one of the main things, and also
their gentleness and quietness. The horse has to be very capable of
handling the different type of students that we have, those that have
maybe a spastic leg that could be rubbing against its sides. The horse
has to know, is that a cue, or is that just the student doing that. And
then the games that we play, the basketballs, the hulahoops, the rings and
everything -- they have to accept all those things. The ramp that we use,
they have to be able to stand in there maybe up to 5 to 10 minutes at a
time.
NARRATOR: ALTHOUGH THERAPEUTIC HORSEBACK RIDING IS RELATIVELY NEW TO THE
UNITED STATES, IT TRACES ITS ROOTS BACK TO ANCIENT GREECE, WHEN WARRIORS
INJURED IN BATTLE WOULD RIDE TO REBUILD THEIR STRENGTH. MODERN
DEVELOPMENTS IN THERAPEUTIC RIDING STARTED IN ENGLAND ABOUT 60 YEARS AGO.
TODAY, THERE ARE MORE THAN 500 CERTIFIED THEREPEUTIC RIDING CENTERS IN THE
UNITED STATES, LIKE HEARTLAND'S SCHOOL OF RIDING IN OVERLAND PARK.
PATTI: We utilize the horse as a tool to work with children and adults
with physical and mental handicaps. Probably a typical rider is a 10
year-old boy with cerebral palsy. However, we have lots of disabilities
like spinal biffeta, mental retardation, attention deficit, autism.
We have what is a pre-school program, and we call it early intervention
therapy, and they're little 2 1/2 and 3-year old children. And they're
not really learning to ride, however they're having so much fun they think
they are. But they work one-on-one with our occupational therapist who's
on our staff. And they have an hour therapy session each week -- one hour
a week.
During that time our therapist will manipulate their body while the horse
is moving and they're sitting on a pad. And they really learn balance and
they learn to use muscles that if a therapist were working with them on a
chair, they're just saying, "si t up," but if you're on a horse and the
horse is moving, it throws you back and you learn what the muscles feel
like to sit up and pretty soon you're sitting up. It's really wonderful
to watch.
NARRATOR: STRICTLY THERAPY, THESE CLASSES ARE CALLED HIPPO- THERAPY,
WHICH COMES FROM THE GREEK WORD, "HIPPO," MEANING HORSE. HEARTLAND'S ALSO
OFFERS MORE ADVANCED CLASSES THAT COMBINE THERAPY WITH ACTUAL RIDING
LESSONS.
DONN: We have probably a waiting list of 40-50 names right now. And some
of them have been on the list for a long time, waiting to get in, but
there's so few changeovers and with our schedule the way it is, we really
can't squeeze in any more, so we have to wait until one leaves so then we
can bring somebody else in to take their place.
I started out 5 years ago as the barn manager, and my whole focus was
taking care of the horses and the property and all the maintenance and
everything that needed to be taken care of. And from there, I became so
enthused with the students and what they were doing, and wanting to get
more involved, so I started studying with our other in- structors and
started getting involved in our association and going to clinics and
conferences and everything, and learning to become an instructor.
DIANNA LEONARD: Well, I had multiple sclerosis and I was just trying to
find anything that was supposed to be helpful for the handicapped. And
I've had some physical therapy and my therapist told me I needed to do
hippotherapy. I had no idea what that was. And she told me it was riding
horses.
Psychologically, it's going to be helpful, just doing something. I'd
ridden horses when I was a kid. And so I was a little familiar with
horses. But I think it helps stretch my legs out, and I've got a lot of
tone in my legs, so it helps me loosen up a little bit.
DONN: The biggest thing that we work on is their balance and
coordination, try to define their center on the horse, they'll get off a
little bit, we make them find where the proper place is for them to be
sitting and to see them do that -- And then the coordination of working
their arms to make the horse steer, to stop, all those things just are
beneficial.
And to me, there's no question but that the horses know what's going on.
They know their students, I mean, the people that are riding them. To me,
there's all the difference in the world when I'm up on them, schooling
them, compared to when I put one of our students on. They're just a
totally different horse. And there's a mutual bond that just goes between
them.
EVELYN ZACHARIAS: They're very patient, and when some of the kids, they
jerk on the lines, the horses are calm, the horses are just wonderful. I
think they honestly know what's going on.
NARRATOR: DESPITE A SMALL PAID STAFF, CLASSES RUN SMOOTHLY AND THE HORSES
ARE WELL CARED FOR, THANKS TO THE EFFORTS OF A LARGE NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS
WHO OFFER THEIR SERVICES TO THIS NON-PROFIT SCHOOL.
DONN: And without them, we would have to hire, I don't know how many
people and would cost us tremendously to have people to do that. And here
we've got a good crew of volunteers that come in, that love to do it, it
gives them a chance to be with the students and the horses and interact in
both ways and they know it's for a needy cause. And we just couldn't --
there's no way we could survive without them.
EVELYN: We all work together to keep the place clean, to keep the horses
happy. The horses are happy, the kids are happy, and that's success in
itself, is the state of mind of everyone here, the horses and the kids.
DIANNA: Doing anything physical that you can do and something that you
enjoy, makes a person feel better. They're doing it on their own, really.
People are out there helping you get on and off, but you're actually
riding by yourself.
PATTI: Somebody said, and I don't remember who it was, that the outside
of a horse is good for the inside of a man, and it is really true, because
it does a lot to your psyche, and the self-esteem, I guess, is probably
the word I'm looking for. The kids sit up tall. It's something that they
can do. They might not be able to compete with football, softball, with
their other friends, but they can ride a horse and do it well.
EVELYN: It's amazing how independent a child or an adult can feel on a
horse. They feel like they're in control of their life again, and the
horse enables them to do that. And it's not only healthy for them
physically, it's healthy for them in their mind.
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(Copyright 1996 KTWU/Channel 11, Topeka, KS.)