Hippotherapy ELIZABETH BECKERLEGGE IS A CHARTERED PHYSIOTHERAPIST AND FOUNDER OF RIDING FOR REHAB, A MULTIDISCIPLINARY EQUINE FACILITATED THERAPY PRACTICE BASED IN YORKSHIRE BUT WITH CLIENTS ALL AROUND THE UK. SHE IS CHAIR OF ACPEA, THE ASSOCIATION OF CHARTERED PHYSIOTHERAPISTS IN EQUINE ACTIVITIES AND HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH THE RIDING FOR THE DISABLED ASSOCIATION (RDA) FOR MANY YEARS
R
iding for people with a disability can be a sport – look at the success of our paradressage riders – a leisure and pleasure activity or a specific therapy activity. Hippotherapy is the term given to using a horse for treatment (hippos
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= Greek for horse and therapia = treatment). In the UK hippotherapy is carried out by Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists or Speech Therapists who have undertaken specific post-graduate training in this specialism. It is a therapy treatment
and riding skills are not taught but many children or adults who have had hippotherapy treatment do go on to join an RDA group or a commercial riding school in order to learn to ride for sport or a leisure activity.
