Horseback Riding therapy helps people with disabilities like Multiple Sclerosis

May 7, 2012

DAMASCUS TWP. – When Shelley White, 63, first mounted a horse at Fair Hill Farm, she needed a leg brace and a cane to walk.

Ms. White, of Scranton, has multiple sclerosis, a disease commonly associated with walking and balance problems. After five years of riding, she no longer needs a brace or a cane, a development she attributes to the success of therapeutic horseback riding.

“It’s like a mind/body thing,” she said. “It facilitates emotional well-being as well as physical strength when you create the bond with the horse that you’re on.”

The Fair Hill Farm Riding Academy in Tyler Hill, Wayne County, which is the therapeutic riding program offered at the farm, has been operating for five years. The program has a partnership with Honesdale High School, training senior students to assist students in special education. The final ride for this year will be held on Thursday.

“It started with a single person and now it’s a regular annual program with the high school,” owner Art Goldberg said. “We train able-bodied students who are working on their senior projects to help with special education students to ride.”

The program helps participants develop core muscle strength, as well as balance, coordination and sensory motor development, Ms. White said. Riders do therapy while riding, participate in team training, learn to groom and care for the horses, as well as complete specific exercises, like long-lining – walking behind the horse with a long rein to develop balance and improve walking.

Mr. Goldberg said one of the “inspirational” moments he has enjoyed was having a wheelchair-bound student describe riding a horse as seeing a new version of the world.