Muscle reaction function of individuals with intellectual disabilities may be improved through therapeutic use of a horse.
Two half-hour horse rides a week for three months can make teens with ID stand up faster by sharpening muscle reaction time.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Giagazoglou et al. (2013) tested a 14-week hippotherapy program. Teens with moderate intellectual disability rode horses twice a week for 30 minutes.
The team checked how fast each teen could tense leg muscles when standing from a chair. They compared the riders to a no-ride control group.
What they found
After 14 weeks the riders reacted faster and reached peak muscle tension sooner. The gains held under three different balance conditions.
Two short rides a week were enough to see clear changes in movement speed.
How this fits with other research
Vogt et al. (2013) saw the same speed boost after just 10 minutes of cycling. Their quick result shows you do not need a horse to cut reaction time.
Hong et al. (2021) got faster times with a single low-intensity run. Again, the benefit came right away, not after months.
Borji et al. (2014) looked at adults with ID and found weak muscle activation at rest. Paraskevi’s teens started low too, but the horse program pulled them up. The papers do not clash; they map the gap hippotherapy can close.
Ellingsen et al. (2014) ran a 14-week gym mix of cardio, strength, and balance. Like the horse study, they saw broad gains, proving the teen results can extend to adults using other exercise tools.
Why it matters
You now have two ways to speed up clients with ID: short bike or run bursts for a same-day lift, or horse rides for steady long-term change. If a ranch is near you, schedule two 30-minute sessions a week. Track stand-up speed with a stopwatch to see the change yourself.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Reaction time and muscle activation deficits might limit the individual's autonomy in activities of daily living and in participating in recreational activities. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of a 14-week hippotherapy exercise program on movement reaction time and muscle activation in adolescents with intellectual disability (ID). Nineteen adolescents with moderate ID were assigned either to an experimental group (n=10) or a control group (n=9). The experimental group attended a hippotherapy exercise program, consisting of two 30-min sessions per week for 14 weeks. Reaction time, time of maximum muscle activity and electromyographic activity (EMG) of rectus femoris and biceps femoris when standing up from a chair under three conditions: in response to audio, visual and audio with closed eyes stimuli were measured. Analysis of variance designs showed that hippotherapy intervention program resulted in significant improvements in reaction time and a reduction in time to maximum muscle activity of the intervention group comparing to the control group in all 3 three conditions that were examined (p<0.05). The present findings suggest that the muscle reaction function of individuals with ID can be improved through hippotherapy training. Hippotherapy probably creates a changing environment with a variety of stimuli that enhance deep proprioception as well as other sensory inputs. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that hippotherapy can improve functional task performance by enhancing reaction time.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.04.015