What We Do
Welcome to CHUM Therapeutic Riding Inc. where we provide Equine Assisted Services including therapeutic riding, occupational therapy specializing in hippotherapy as a treatment strategy, sport/recreational riding, research/education, and opportunities to give back to our communities!
Therapeutic riding is an activity where learning riding skills is inherently therapeutic in nature. The horse affects the rider on a systems wide basis impacting physical, cognitive, and social/emotional growth. The certified instructors design the lesson based on the needs of the rider, adapting equipment or techniques as needed for the success of the rider's skills. These areas of improvement carry over into the greater skills for life; whether this is self-esteem, problem solving, attention/divided attention, social skills, gross/fine motor skills, balance, postural control and motor planning, equilibrium, endurance, etc. These are areas impacted in a generalized way inherently by the equine activity.
Occupational therapy services using hippotherapy or the equine movement and environment as a treatment strategy have specific areas and goals for improvement for the client. Therapist strategies and tools vary based on field of practice; however, therapists are there to assist in facilitating responses toward individual goals. This could be athletic equipment, Swiss therapy balls, manual massage techniques, weights, activities to enhance activities of daily living, etc. The equine movement offers the horse's movement, a three-dimensional moving platform where the type of movement can be graded and changed and where specific muscle/balance/strength responses are facilitated specific to that client's goals. Cognition goals can be facilitated with specific tasks that require different levels of problem-solving, attention/divided attention, task sequencing/initiation/termination of task, communication, as well as psycho/social skills. The activities used while sensory information is being received and processed by the body allow for more complex integration of systems within the body. Activities such as daily living skills that require crossing midline, dynamic movement, and spatial processing in the environment can all be addressed.
Research continued at an international level in all areas of impact from both therapeutic riding as an activity and therapy services that include hippotherapy as a treatment strategy. We here at CHUM have teamed up with multiple universities here in Michigan, in other areas of the US, and Australia to complete research projects with occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language, osteopathic medicine, kinesiology, nursing, human/animal bond, veterinary medicine, and resiliency and anger in 'kids at risk.' We continue to research the stated benefits seen in this field to assist in educating the medical, educational, and insurance fields of this powerful strategy in therapy available to individuals.