Healing with the horses.....

Hippotherapy or equine therapy means treatment with the horses. For the first time when I heard about equine or hippo therapy from a fellow parent, I was not sure whether I should take Yatish for this therapy and whether it would help him. I had doubts like how would he sit up on the horse, would he be scared etc. I got the contact of Pushpa Bopaiah, who is the one of the very few qualified Hippo therapists in India. She was having her sessions in the army campus and the horses were from the army stables. The sprawling army grounds were an ideal setting for horse riding. Pushpa is a rare individual who has combined her profession of special education and her passion for horses, into her mission to help special children. The Healing Horses, equine therapeutic training programme run by Pushpa, provides therapy to children with varied disabilities.


http://www.healinghorses.in/index.htm

Once I met Pushpa, all my fears were allayed. Yatish was ecstatic seeing the horses. Pushpa ensured that he was safe and secure with the trainer holding him. It was a 45 minute session and the children rode around the grounds doing different strides, plucking leaves, counting numbers and playing with rings. Yatish absolutely loved it and looked forward to it every weekend.

The three dimensional rhythmic gait of the horse is very similar to human gait. So when the person rides, his gait is stimulated by movement of the pelvis –rotation, backwards and forwards and side to side movements. Hence it helps in improving posture, balance, mobility and also motor functions. It is also believed to improve cognitive, behavioural and communication skills. There is also some kind of bond which develops between the horse and the rider, which cannot be quite explained. Whenever I saw these kids on these huge horses, it looked as if instinctively the horses knew that they had a sick child on their back and they took utmost care to make their strides gentle. It was an amazing sight to watch.

The hippotherapy continued for quite some time, because this was one therapy which Yatish would do 100 percent without much fuss. He loved the whole routine of driving to the grounds, doing the therapy and having his breakfast at the army canteen.

Pushpa worked closely with Dr. Deepak Sharan, who is a renowned Orthopaedic surgeon and has done some pioneering work in spasticity release surgeries for cerebral palsy patients. She suggested that it would be a good idea to consult him and see if we could do something about Yatish’s spasticity.

Until now we had never thought about surgery and considering how tiny and frail Yatish was, doing any kind of invasive surgery was something we were not sure how Yatish would take. But we had very few choices. We had checked on Botox, but the effect of Botox stays only for a short time, so we have to keep giving it at regular intervals and the follow-up therapy had to be really good, to get the real benefit. There is also a drug called Baclophen, which is a muscle relaxant and an anti spastic agent, but it has its side effects and is generally not suitable for younger children.

I fixed up an appointment with Dr. Sharan and this was the beginning of a new chapter in our lives..