Article Summary for Hippotherapy

Full APA Citation:

Holm, M. B., Baird, J. M., Kim, Y. J., Rajora, K. B., D'Silva, D., Podolinsky, L., . . . Minshew, N. (2014).
Therapeutic Horseback Riding Outcomes of Parent-Identified Goals for Children with Autism
Spectrum Disorder: An ABA Multiple Case Design Examining Dosing and Generalization to the
Home and Community. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,44, 937-947.
doi:10.1007/s10803-013-1949-x

Permanent URL:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4136476/

Overview of Topic/Article:
According to the American Hippotherapy Association, hippotherapy refers to:

how occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology professionals use
evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning in the purposeful manipulation of equine
movement to engage sensory, neuromotor, and cognitive systems to achieve functional
outcomes.

In this setting, a client will visit the hippotherapy arena, or barn; typically, in a 3:1 ratio accompanied
by Occupational, Speech and Physical Therapists. In this particular article, research focuses on carryover
of learned behavioral and verbal skills through hippotherapy. Researchers also study and compare the
amount of success over a 12 week period of students with Autism who receive hippotherapy: one time,
three times, and 5 times a week.

Key Points/Findings [bulleted list]:

Researched behaviors in three environments: the therapeutic riding center, the home, and the
community.
Behaviors included: clenching hands, clapping, hands in mouth, making verbal requests,
producing verbal demands
Compared to Baseline, 70 % of the target behaviors were better during Intervention and
improvement was retained in 63 % of the behaviors during Withdrawal.
Carryover of the session effect on the target behaviors in the home and community was positive
Increasing the dosage of weekly therapeutic riding sessions did not seem to impact the number
of positive behavioral changes, it did impact the magnitude of those changesprimarily for the
better.

Implications to Current/Future Practitioners [bulleted list]:

Positive impact, hippotherapy is considered a promising practice currently. Studies like these
can be useful to determine it as an evidence based practice
This study also shows that increased dosage of therapy a week has a positive impact on carry
over and magnitude of change in behaviors
This study should be replicated