The Effects of Therapeutic Horseback Riding on Balance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of therapeutic horseback riding as a therapeutic intervention to improve the balance of thirty individuals who participated in a Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH) therapeutic riding member program. The study lasted ten weeks, with each participant receiving the intervention for thirty minutes, once a week. The Multi-Directional Reach Test (MDRT) (Newman, 2001) was used as an instrument to quantify balance before and after the first intervention, the beginning of the second intervention, and after the last intervention. The therapeutic riding program began with active arm movements to encourage stretching, and required two forms of external perturbations involving at least three transitions, and the completion of at least one figure eight to challenge balance of riders with disabilities. This quasi-experimental study used a one-group pretest-posttest design to examine the effects of therapeutic horseback riding on balance. Paired t-tests and repeated measures ANOVAs were used to examine a relationship between therapeutic horseback riding and balance. The discussion presents practitioner applications and research implications.