{"id":10118,"date":"2020-11-26T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/equestrianbootsandbridles.com\/?p=10118"},"modified":"2021-05-12T14:20:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T18:20:02","slug":"why-horseback-riding-is-therapeutic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/equestrianbootsandbridles.com\/why-horseback-riding-is-therapeutic\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Horseback Riding is Therapeutic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
One of the reasons why horseback riding is therapeutic for me is that if I’m having a bad day, I always know that going out riding will make it that much better. I mean, even if I’m having a good day going riding makes it better, but you know what I mean!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps for that reason, recently a new riding discipline has emerged. It’s called ‘therapeutic riding’. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today I wanted to delve a little bit into what therapeutic riding is. Then, I’ll take you through my perspective on three things that show why horseback riding is therapeutic more generally. Hopefully we’ll learn something together!<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what is therapeutic riding? <\/p>\n\n\n\n In my research, I’ve come across two commonly used forms of therapeutic riding. The first is therapeutic riding for physical therapy. The second is therapeutic riding for psychological therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s start by discussing therapeutic riding as a form of physical therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, let me say that ‘riding’ could be a bit of a misnomer here.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Therapeutic riding is a tool used in physical therapy for patients with disabilities or injuries. Sometimes patients won’t actually be riding, but rather will be doing activities while mounted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These activities could be something like throwing and catching a ball, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The aim is to improve patients’ core, pelvic and inner thigh muscles. As many riders know, these are key muscle groups that horseback riding targets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Physiotherapists are discovering that even just sitting mounted on a horse can have huge benefits. These go above and beyond what exercise machines provide. Plus, many patients find that the experience of therapeutic riding is much more enjoyable than working on a machine – perhaps because of the psychological benefits, which we’ll talk about now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So while I was writing this article, I came across this article<\/a>. It describes how horseback riding led to consistently improved PTSD scores among military veterans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The veterans participated in a six week therapeutic riding program, but the results showed that even as early as three weeks into the program PTSD scores were improving.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTherapeutic Riding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Therapeutic Riding as Physical Therapy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Therapeutic Riding as Psychological Therapy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n