How can hippotherapy influence attention and arousal?
Before attention can occur, a person must first be aroused. Arousal, referred to as alertness, occurs on a physical and mental level and prepares a person for some form of action. Hippotherapy provides an opportunity to manipulate arousal through the movement of the horse. The integration of sensory and motor systems requires a level of brain activation that is sufficiently aroused so as to make processing more efficient. The movement of the horse can be used for this purpose: too little movement can mean a less efficient system, while too much movement may agitate or overload the patient. It is important to know that either increasing or decreasing certain stimuli can facilitate attention. For example, long slow strides may have a calming effect, while the concussive impact of a horse with straight pasterns and a choppy gait may have an arousing effect. Similarly, increasing the cadence, or varying the pattern can arouse a patient, as can a series of upward and downward transitions; c
