Published since 07.2002
Published on July 18, 2008
ANIMAL WELFARE: “HIPPOTHERAPY” INTRODUCED TO GREAT SUCCESS FOR CHALLENGED CHILDREN
- Hovik, 10, holding tightly with both hands onto the hand of a helper hangs onto his able-bodied assistant, forced to walk against the resistance of his tensed body as the assistant leads him to a horse. Fifteen minutes later his is helped off the saddle after a ride and his body has been transformed – now he only leans for help from the assistant rather than clinging. Hovik, who received encephalopathy while getting treatment for whooping cough turned handicapped and unable to walk with his back bent like brackets. After 10 sessions of hippotherapy (horse riding therapy) Hovik’s back has already straightened; he walks holding on to walls. He got an opportunity for the treatment 3 months ago, when hippotherapy was first introduced in Armenia. Hasmik Hovhannisyan, 26, founder of the recently created “Kentavr” Association of Hippotherapy and Equestrian Sport used to be a reporter covering the issues of disabled children. Her desire to be useful to children prompted the creation of the association: “There are many NGOs opening to help disabled children but their life does not change significantly. They remain isolated. I used to write about it so much, but there was not much use, so I decided to work more efficiently. I learned of hippotherapy on the internet and it seemed to me a miracle. Then I learned there was no such thing in Armenia.” Hasmik studied hippotherapy in Tbilisi and created the center in collaboration with 3 horse trainers. The center operates since April on the small hippodrome on the territory of “10/10” shooting range in the community of Davitashen. The center rents two horses. There are already 12 children attending the center. Hippotherapy is a kind of medical gymnastics for people suffering motor system and mental problems. The patient does a set of exercises on horseback. The muscles of the rider on the horseback move the same way as when walking; in case of regular exercises the feet of a horse replace the sick feet of a disabled child, as they send the needed signals to the child’s body (unlike those of his own brain) making the muscles ‘recall’ their function. The practice shows the treatment is irreplaceable for those with childhood cerebral paralysis. Hovik says he walks better after dismounting and feels comfortable in his body for the next two days. His mother Gohar had learned of hippotherapy long before, but could not find a center practicing the method anywhere in Armenia. She says an acquaintance had taken her child to the Yerevan hippodrome but was told after a couple of visits not to go there anymore because the child passed a negative energy to the place. “Happily it was not me, or else I would turn the hippodrome upside down!” says Gohar. She is amazed with the results of the hippotherapy: “He has begun to stand on his own feet. He was unable to stand on foot before, but does now.” Alice, 11, cried and ran away the first time she saw a horse; but began to sit on the horse after a long workout with her, the third time she did it with pleasure and on the forth session she ran to the horse. She all of a sudden began to talk once when was taken down from the horse saying “careful kid”. Alice is an autist and does not speak. She is hyperactive and never calms down. Her mother Anna says she could run, walk and jump all day long. But after just 5 sessions of hippotherapy she began to lie down, sit quiet and spell words more often: “I am just amazed; she is exceptionally calm after a session. She now lies on the sofa; she has never done that before. I think the horse takes her energy.” Another peculiarity of the hippotherapy is its calming effect that the horse has on the patient (other such animals are dolphins and some of Hasmik’s patients were taken to the Sochi dolphin center by their parents). The therapy also has a positive psychological influence: “This kind of children have always been told they are weak they can’t do this or that; but now they sit on the back of a big animal in no way differing from others and make the horse obey by holding the bridle.” Hovik’s mother Gohar says there are many parents willing to bring their children to hippotherapy, but have no opportunity. “The state gives only 9,500 drams ($31), nothing more. A walker for a child like this costs $250. Where can they get the means from?” A session of hippotherapy costs 2,000 drams ($6.50), cheaper 10-15 times than in Europe and 6 times than in Russia, but Hasmik says there are many people who want the service, but have no means to get it.
- Vahan Ishkhanyan
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Today in Armenian history- 1894 Birth of Vahan Totovents (writer). He was murdered by the Soviet Secret Police in 1937.
- 1914 The Central Committees of Taron and Sassoon present the reform program to three embassies in Constantinople.
- 1938 Birth of Perch Zeytuntsyan (playwright) in Cairo (Egypt).
- 1988 The USSR Supreme Soviet, relies on Article 78 of the Soviet Constitution (prohibition of any territorial changes to a Union Republic without its consent) to deny the 1988 02 20 petition by the Autonomous Region of Nagorno Gharabagh to rejoin Armenia.
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