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Four times per week children with mental and physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy, autism and encephalopathy come to me. Six of them are from the Kharberd orphanage for children with special needs, and a girl and a boy come with their moms. Hasmik and Boris speak about hippotherapy so much that I can tell you about it just as much as they can.

Hippotherapy literally means treatment with the help of us, horses. Hippocrates who wrote a lot about us said, “If you want to be healthy, walk a lot, eat healthy food and sit on horse.”
People often call us a “living training apparatus.” When we walk our spine makes three-dimensional movements and all the muscles of the rider’s body repeat those movements. Through that movement spastic muscles relax and at the same time weak muscles strengthen which is extremely important, especially with cerebral palsy.

The psychological aspect is also important. When a child comes for a session he/she does not take it as a treatment but as a horse riding learning process. Besides, here it is the child who is important, who is “over” and not “under,” as usual. He has always been told, “you are not able, you are weak” and now he is sitting on a big, strong animal who obeys the commands emanating from his sick, incapable hands. It is a totally new feeling for them and raises their self-confidence and self-estimation. 

The range of illnesses which can partly or fully be treated through hippotherapy is large and includes cerebral palsy, autism, schizophrenia, spinal problems, scoliosis, Down’s syndrome, problems with nerve system, osteochondrosis, prostatitis, post heart attack and stroke rehabilitation, and others.

What about contra-indications they are present with a very few illnesses such as hemophilia, some kidney illnesses and exacerbation of any illness.

Specialists put children on my back in different positions, with and without saddle and give them different exercises depending on the individual problems of each.

“Will you behave well, my piglet, so that I will not fall down?”

Little Veronica is my lightest patient. She sits in the saddle like a jockey: knees up and bending forward. She does not do it on purpose. Veronica suffers from quadriplegic cerebral palsy in which all four extremities are affected. Her muscles are extremely spastic and she is not capable to relax and let her feet down. But then I start walking. Trainer Boris directs my rhythm and speed through the reins. Veronica’s back straightens eventually; she raises her head and looks at the children awaiting their turn. Everybody is admiring her. The therapists at the orphanage say she is never as happy as when she comes to me.

Arzouman calls me piglet. Every time he sits on my back and asks “Will you behave well my piglet so that I will not fall down?” I nod vigorously. To be honest this way I frighten flies away but Arzouman take that movement as a sign of agreement and feels more confident.

Gor is epileptic. When he sat on my back first time his legs and hands were trembling from fear. He could not keep his balance and was almost falling down on the hippotherapist. The hippotherapist always walks on my left side insuring the child’s safety and watching that they do the exercises correctly. She tells Gor, “Now I will let your leg go and you will try to keep balance.” If he loses that confidence he will mobilize all abilities of his sick body not to fall down, and all his muscles will start working intensively. Gor screams, “No, don’t let me go.” This was during the second session. At fourth session he would push Hasmik’s hand away from his leg with indignation. And at fifth session he asked to hold the reins himself. His movements, of course, are not yet soft and give me some discomfort but when he manages he laughs so contagiously that I am not angry with him at all. After getting off my back Gor leads me to the next child. He moves much more confidently and he often does not hold the hand of hippotherapist.

Arman is autistic. His educator Gohar says that before starting the hippotherapy sessions he had problems with communicating with people. Now he is much better at that. Arman understands everything but he is not interested in socializing with people. But we understand each other very well. Educators say that Arman is surprised that my ears move while walking and human beings’ ears do not. So he keeps flipping the ears of the other kids to make them move.

Hamlet is always the last to sit on my back. He started riding alone from the very first day. Several years ago he was not able to walk at all. He was operated on and then tried hard to learn walking. He is already learning trotting slowly. His therapist Lusine says that nothing has ever excited Hamlet as much as horse riding.

David is my noisiest patient. He has smiles to the ears and his mouth never shuts up. Concentrating on something is very hard for him so he has difficulties with learning the simplest exercises. So the hippotherapist and trainer stop me frequently to repeat them over and over again.

Angelina is the youngest one. She is only four. She was crying non-stop at the first session. She was scared of me. But now she is Ok. Angelina has a weak back and it is hard for her to keep her back straight. The hippotherapist has to be a bit cunning. Angelina adores lying on her belly across my back. It is done to relax her muscles after the exercises. Hasmik says, “Now I will count till ten. If you keep your back straight while I am counting you will lie down on the horse’s   belly, Ok?” Angelina accepts the new game with great joy and starts counting with her. Very soon even I will learn counting with them.

Angelina’s mom Marina says that after three sessions Angelina could sit on the chair herself and started to move her affected right hand and leg slightly.

Hovik is my newest patient. But for Hasmik and Boris he is their “eldest” one. Before they were practicing hippotherapy in a Yerevan riding club. Hovik, who used to move only in a wheelchair or hanging from the hands of the guides, started walking leaning against walls. Then he got operated on and now is back. He has very good voice and knows Armenian hit songs by heart. He always gives me sugar.

Great Seven

Let me also tell you a bit about us horses. There are 7 us here in the riding club “Zatik”, located in the village Ushi near the town of Ashtarak. The youngest one is Sorbonne, a mixed Arabian and English breed. She is only 4 months old, too young both for hippotherapy and riding. Her mom is over 20, which is like 80 years old for a human being, so she is not ridden.

Sorbonne’s sister Sabina and one year old Strasburg 2 began being trained for hippotherapy.  Golden, a 9 year old pure breed has already joined us. Children adore him for the golden color and are a bit scared of his height; he is the tallest among us. My sister Jeffa is going to be involved in hippotherapy soon. But I will sure remain the main doctor.

By the way, not all horses are good for hippotherapy. Horse needs to be calm, kind and friendly and, of course, predictable because we deal with children with problems.

Hippotherapy is widely known in the world. In Armenia it was started by equestrian sports trainer Boris and former journalist Hasmik. They created the “Association of Hippotherapy and Equestrian Sports “Centaur” NGO to practice hippotherapy. Hasmik and Boris keep talking about the many children who need hippotherapy but cannot afford the transportation cost to the village. Before, when they were practicing in a riding club in Yerevan, getting there was much easier. But the director of the club decided to stop hippotherapy sessions in his club saying that the children disturb clients who come to learn horse riding. The other two clubs in Yerevan also refused for reasons such as, “we do not want to create a hospital atmosphere here” and “those children produce negative energy that affects the horse”. These human beings sometimes can create such silly prejudices.

Fortunately, there are people like Aghasi Zatikyan, the owner of our riding club “Zatik”, who kindly agreed to provide them the use of his arena and we horses only in exchange for providing us with care and fodder.

If Boris and Hasmik manage to find the necessary means many more children will benefit from hippotherapy. Kharberd orphanage’s children, for instance, join the sessions because of kind support of a British couple Haniel and Martin Riviere-Allen and their friends who collected money for the children.

Hasmik and Boris also decided to offer riding lessons to non-disabled people for a donation to the NGO to offset the costs of hippotherapy and fodder for us. 

I hope that they will succeed and more and more children will have the opportunity to join the sessions. Although it is not easy for me, it is a great thing to see happy smiles on their faces and to realize that I am a part of what gives them that happiness.

In expressing his thoughts, Khouzhan was kindly assisted by Hasmik Hovhannisyan