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Showing posts from January, 2017

When Your Child Needs . . . Nope, Not a Hippopotamus, but Hippotherapy

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Not this . . .     But this! Over the past few years I’ve talked about hippotherapy hundreds of times. Sometimes I even sound like I know what I’m talking about.   But the truth is, until Jacob started hippotherapy at McKenna Farms, I’d never heard the word.   Even though hippotherapy has been around for fifty years, many of us have no idea what it is. So let’s start there. Hippotherapy is speech, physical, or occupational therapy delivered while the patient rides a horse. The beauty of the horse as a therapy tool is that the horse’s gait mimics the movement of the human pelvis while walking. Physicians and therapists these days are better informed, and, when warranted, recommend equine therapy as a more useful and productive method for many children who’ve spent way too many hours and days in medical facilities’ sterile settings. When a child loves what they're doing Behavioral and mental health as well as physical health can be improved throug