Volume 10, Issue 2, March–April 2014, Pages 81–87
Background
In
the last few decades, therapeutic horse-riding has become recognized as
a progressive form of therapy, particularly for people with
disabilities. Although there is a substantial amount of literature that
supports the physical benefit of therapeutic riding, only anecdotal
evidence exists in relation to its psychological benefits.
Objective
The
purpose of this article is to develop hypotheses about the mechanisms
by which therapeutic riding might have a beneficial psychological
effect. These hypotheses can then be tested, leading to a more detailed
knowledge base.
Data Sources
PsychINFO, MEDLINE, PROQUEST, Scopus, Web of Science, and CINAHL.
Study Selection
Data
sources were searched for studies that (a) were related to the
psychological effects of therapeutic horse-riding, (b) focused
exclusively on therapeutic horse-riding, (c) described, explicitly or
implicitly, the mechanism by which therapeutic riding had a beneficial
psychological effect. Studies were limited to those published between
2008 and 2012.
Data Extraction
Data were extracted by two authors independently.
Data Synthesis
Thirty
articles met the inclusion criteria. Three potential hypotheses emerged
from the literature, namely, (1) the psychological benefits of
therapeutic riding are actually unrelated to the horse, (2) the horse
provides a particularly positive context within which psychological
gains are facilitated, and (3) the horse itself has specific therapeutic
qualities that bring about unique changes not otherwise likely to
occur.
Conclusion
The challenge for researchers in this area is to design studies that adequately test these competing hypotheses.
Key words
- therapeutic riding;
- equine therapy;
- physical and psychological well-being
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
