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agate
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Joined: 17 May 2006
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Location: Oregon
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 Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 10:37 pm Post subject: Horseback riding for MS, & Ann Romney |
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From The Daily Times (Worcester County, MD), September 1, 2012:
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Horses offer help to MS sufferers
Written by
Paul Rendine
Just a few months ago, it was disclosed that Ann Romney had multiple sclerosis. It was also noted that she owned a horse, too, which she rode quite regularly because she had been advised that horseback riding was well known as a therapy for people with any number of disabilities.
MS is one such disability because the act of riding itself has proven to be another genuine and therapeutic activity that can aid a person with a disability -- especially a person dealing with MS -- to improve their balance; strengthen their muscles; improve their coordination, reflexes and other motor skills; increase their range of motion; and decrease any spasticity that a person with a given disability may be experiencing.
When it was commented that Ann Romney was riding on a horse that the Romney family had on their farm to help her to better manage and, hopefully, overcome the symptoms of her MS, it was also noted that the horse that she owned was one that she was helping to train for an upcoming Olympic equestrian event, dressage.
Unfortunately, that term was quite enough for a number of network news operations' talking heads to scoff at the use of horses as a therapy for people with MS, or certain other disabilities as well.
While no one can pinpoint the time when riding for people with disabilities became a specialized field, history now records that people with disabilities began riding horses as early as the days of the ancient Greeks. More specifically, a Greek historian began to document the therapeutic value of riding for people with disabilities in about 600 BC. Other writings from that time in Greek history also spoke of "improving the health and well-being of people with handicaps" by helping such people to "regain as much of their health as possible" with the aid of riding horseback again.
Fast forward to 1875, when a French physician actually used horseback riding as a treatment for a variety of conditions, including neurological disorders; improving posture, balance and joint movements; and psychological improvements. Fast forward again to 1946, when, in the Scandinavian countries -- following two wide spread outbreaks of poliomyelitis -- a very well known and accomplished horsewoman, Lis Hartel, was stricken with the disease.
While surgery and physiotherapy helped her to walk again with braces and crutches, her determination to ride independently saw her begin a daily program of supervised daily riding sessions, which allowed her to improve her muscle strength and her coordination.
That work then came to this country in 1960 with the formation of the Community Association of Riding for the Disabled.
That association during the next almost two decades spawned a host of other such groups around the nation in most locales around the country. In our area, such a group is in Parsonsburg and is called the "4STEPS: Therapeutic Riding Program." It was founded in 2004 to share the therapeutic spirit and horseback riding programs of entire local affiliates nationwide. The group's mission is to "enhance and enrich the lives of individuals with disabilities through safe therapeutic interaction with horses."
Its clients are recommended by doctors, teachers, counselors and therapists.
The group's recommendations are made with the belief that such a therapy can add to that recommended person's physical and mental well being.
The organization also accepts tax-deductible donations to assist with covering their operating expenses and scholarships.
You can contact 4STEPS online at www.4Steps TRP.org, by telephone at 410-835-8814, by email at giddyup4steps@aol.com or by mail at 5367A Sixty Foot Road, Parsonsburg, Md. 21849.
If you believe that this particular type of therapy might benefit a member of your family, friends and/or associates with disabilities, then we would urge you to contact them with whatever questions you might have. This could be just the additional piece of the puzzle that you will need to help yourself, a member of your family, or another friend or associate to really enhance their lives.
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Footnote: "Dressage" isn't just your ordinary horseback riding. The horse is trained to execute what look like dance steps, as in this example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPJGEzI3aIc |
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