Hello.

I am considering asking my daughter's pedi for a referral for Equestrian Therapy. She was diagnosed with femoral anteversion and a mental thought process disorder two weeks ago. She is still undergoing testing for the mental thought process disorder so we can find out exactly what it is and try to help her.
I have been doing some reading and in the Pediatric Manual of Medicine: An Osteopathic Approach by Dr Jane Correiro it states that equestrian therapy is highly recommended for treatment of femoral anteversion.

Have any of you had your children involved in Equestrian Therapy and how did it go?

My daughter's very first PT was a horse lover and worked with the local ET group. Her doctor recommended it highly and I encouraged her to give it a try. Unfortunately, she was afraid of falling (severe arthritis and osteoporosis) and I let it go. I've always been sorry I did.

There is a great deal of evidence to support this type of therapy for a number of disorders; physical, mental, and emotional. If I had it to do over again, I would have forced her to try it.

Now, the sadder but wiser girl in me thinks, "So what if it doesn't work out? You miss 100% of all the shots you don't take." I know so many kids with learning disabilities who have connected with horses in ways they NEVER connected with teachers. Physical therapists are involved right in the training and assistants walk along side the horse. Again...wish I'd forced it on her.

I say give it a try. If it doesn't work out, you can stop. If you don't try, you'll never know and ten years from now you could be writing a message like this one.

Keep On Dancing*

I underwent ET when I was a child due to a broken femur and having to learn to walk again.

It was an awesome experience for me (I love Horses) and I think out of ALL the therapy I had to go through it was the MOST helpful.

Years later I volunteered to be a spotter for ET. Never forget what that program did for me!

I highly recommend it.

I volunteered with a local group for 7 years and it was amazing to watch the changes in the riders.
For most children we started out with a person leading the horse and two side walkers to keep the rider stable. As they progressed most students would move to riding entirely on their own.

Now I work with a group that pairs veterans suffering from PTSD with horses.

Horses are amazing creates and seem to have a magical effect on people, for most of the riders it was a day to look forward to rather than just another day of therapy.

Equestrian Therapy is wonderful. My daughter volunteered for quite awhile as a spotter at our local therapeutic riding center. She also took on the truly unglamorous task of mucking out their stalls one long and freezing winter. I spent a lot of time there too. It was amazing to see the change in the kids after they started riding. Many kids with various challenges made great progress in the time we were there. The people involved in supplying therapeutic riding services are wonderful. We met some pretty terrific riders and families too. I recommend it highly.

On the PTSD FRONT and other injuries The Old Guard at Ft Myer in Virginia (the Horse drawn Caisson platoon who does military and Presidential funeral's in Washington and AT Arlington National Cemetery.) Now does a ET program for injured vets.
www.militarystables.com . . .


Horse's are so great because they DON'T Judge you and except you for who you are. I would say if you can get her into a program do it. It makes a world of difference!