The Green Hill Therapy Difference

Green Hill Therapy helps more than 250 children each year reach their full potential through proven, playful intervention.

Green Hill Therapy is a leading provider of Hippotherapy, which uses the natural motion of horses to enhance standard physical and occupational therapy for children with special needs. The 150 children helped each week confront physical and developmental challenges including Austism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Spinda Bifida and a host of issues with no diagnosis.

Medically based physical, occupational and speech therapy is individualized to each child’s needs with a mixture of traditional clinic, Hippotherpay and Aquatherapy.   No mater the challenges that each child faces, the therapist strives to incorporate the natural motion and emotional powers of a horse to get amazing results. During a hippotherapy session, a skilled therapist and the movement created during 30 minutes on the horse helps improve balance, develops core strength and mimics the act of walking.  Through this proven, playful and medically-based therapy, licensed therapist change lives every day for kids from across the metro area at the year round arena on Long Run Road in eastern Jefferson County.

The Challenges Green Hill Faces vs. Traditional Settings

Although attaining great results during therapy, there still are challenges to overcome.  Green Hill not only has the daily challenges of running a therapy clinic that serves 150 children and their families each week, but also has all the issues of running a working farm to support eight horses that help give our children a special workout.  The need for volunteers to lead and walk alongside during therapy (sidewalkers) requires year-round assistance and scheduled training programs.  The cost of running a hippotherapy clinic is more than double the cost of a tradiational clinic, yet Green Hill is reimbursed by insurance and Medicaid at the same rate as a traditional clinic.

But we know the cost is worth the difference!  Due to our unique setting, many families find success at Green Hill Therapy after several unsuccessful attempts at more traditional therapy locations.

How Therapies at Green Hill Are Different

The triplanar movement of the horse facilitates Motor Development, Motor Control, and Motor learning by repetition. Each horse moves differently and the horse is chosen with a specific movement goal in mind. Horses provide ~2000-3000 repetitions of movement in a 30 min session, depending on the pace of the animal, that mimics the normal movement pattern for walking, reaching, strengthening and balance. As the fundamental movement patterns develop, they are then transferred to the ground to be used in the child’s daily life for activities such as brushing teeth, hair, picking up a toy, running, riding a bike or playing.

The horse also provides deep sensory input to children that seek movement to organize their brain and bodies.  This allows them to do functional activities that transfer to school work as well as being able to behave in a socially appropriate manner. Some of the biggest challenges that families face is “How can I take my child out in public if all they do is scream or have a big melt down?”

The Aqua Therapy program also accomplishes these goals by providing resistance to the muscles for strengthening, improving balance, breath control and coordination to move through the water.  Children who can’t walk on land can learn to walk in water, because of the pool’s weightless properties. Walking in water can progress to improved walking on land.

The Aqua Therapy program also assists to organize the brain and body of the child by providing deep sensory input from the pressure of the water. The water facilitates playful learning opportunities for the child as well as strengthening which allows the child to learn dressing skills which is important in the family’s daily lives.

Beyond the Therapy Walls

Families want their children to be successful, active and happy. To accomplish this, the skills that are developed on the horse allow these children to participate in adapted sports, dancing, cheerleading, gymnastics, music and multiple other activities that normalize and improve their lives as well as their families’ lives. It develops a sense of pride and accomplishment for the child which allows them to emerge as a productive member of society.

The old saying is, “we learn to move and move to learn”.  Speech is developed as the body becomes organized and is stable when moving in their own environment. To talk, a child requires a stable core and strength to produce sound. They also require sufficient breath control and expiratory strength to produce sound and volume. The use of the horse increases the child’s strength and core stability as well as breath control and production of sound to produce speech. The Aqua Therapy program promotes speech in a similar ways. The resistance of the water on the chest wall provides strengthening of the support muscles used to breath and for speech. Movement in the water promotes a learning environment which also increases speech.  Some of our greatest successes are the improvement of speech with only a few sessions on the horse. Parents are thrilled when hearing their child speak their first words.  The gains achieved during therapy sessions last well beyond the therapy walls.

The uniqueness of our program is that it provides a learning and therapeutic environment in a different and fun setting.

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