Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies: A Case Study of an Older Adult

Abstract

Falls are the leading cause of injuries and deaths in adults over the age of 65. The purpose of this case study is to explore the use of Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies (EAAT) to improve the mechanisms of balance, postural sway, fear of falling (FOF), and participation in older adults (OA). The participant (a 76-year-old woman), completed 10 Adaptive riding (AR) sessions over a six-week period, led by a Level II therapist (COTA/L and PATH certified riding instructor). Changes in function were assessed using the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC), Activity Card Sort (ACS), and Video Motion Capture (VMC) system. Results indicated improved static standing balance, postural stability, and greater dynamic head and trunk control. Additionally, the participant expressed decreased FOF, decreased back pain, the ability to recover self after a fall, and an increase in activity participation as indicated in the ACS.

A Systematic Review of Research on Pet Ownership and Animal Interactions among Older Adults

“…Our review of the literature revealed 17 studies focused on how AAI might impact some aspect of physical health of older adults. One study (Cole, Gawlinski, Steers, & Kotlerman, 2007) was ranked 1b, the highest OCEBM level, three were level 2b (DeSchriver et al, 1990;Friedmann, Thomas, Cook, Tsai, & Picot, 2007;Friedmann, Galik, Thomas, Hall, Chung, & McCune, 2015), four were level 2c (Araujo, Silva, Costa, Pereira, & Safons, 2011;Krause-Parello & Kolassa, 2016;Sloane et al, 2002;Stasi et al, 2004), one was level 3b (Walsh et al, 1995), five were level 4 (Edwards & Beck, 2002Harris et al, 1993;Luptak et al, 2004;Rondeau et al, 2010), and 3 were level 5 (Moffatt et al, 2014;Nordgren et al, 2012;Wehofer et al, 2013).…”

“…The five level 4 studies, classified as case series or poor-quality cohort studies, all reported positive impacts of AAI via increased walking speed (Rondeau et al, 2010), decreases in BP (Harris et al, 1993;Luptak et al, 2004), or increases in nutritional intake (Edwards & Beck, 2002. Of the three single case studies at level 5, two reported the positive impact of AAI, including improvements in walking ability (Nordgren et al, 2012), and balance and stability (Wehofer et al, 2013), and one (Moffatt et al, 2014) reported a negative impact of AAI: the transmission of bacterial infection in a residential facility.…”

Effects of Equine-Assisted Therapies or Horse-Riding Simulators on Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Apart from the randomized controlled trials, Table 6 summarizes the main characteristics of those articles that did not include a control group. Two case studies [ 36 , 37 ], one single-subject experimental design (reporting results patient by patient) [ 38 ] and one action research [ 16 ] were included. Overall, 41 subjects participated in these studies and the authors reported promising results, with pain reduction after EAT interventions.…”

“…This systematic review and meta-analysis include participants suffering from different sources of pain. In this regard, studies with real horses involved patients with arthritis [ 25 ], multiple sclerosis [ 26 , 38 ], or back or neck pain [ 16 , 36 , 37 ], whereas patients in studies with simulated horses had LBP. However, in the meta-analyses all the articles included patients with LBP.…”

A possible mechanism of horseback riding on dynamic trunk alignment

“…Interventional studies have shown the efficacy of hippotherapy on muscle activity, functional ability, gait parameters, and postural stability in cerebral palsy [ 10 , 23 ], multiple sclerosis [ 24 , 25 ], down syndrome [ 26 , 27 ], and gerontological science [ 28 , 29 ]. Whereas, few reports described the motion mechanism of horseback riding which justify the efficacy on the dynamic trunk alignment.…”