LINCOLN -- Erica Villines found hope in a horse for a more normal life for her 4-year-old daughter Paizley.
Paizley lives with spina bifida, a spinal defect that can cause disabilities with movement. Paizley is paralyzed from her knees down. She cannot walk and do other activities a normal child can do, and she uses a wheelchair, Villines said.
But on the back of a horse, Paizley sits straight and uses a pole to move hoops to help her with balance, strength for reaching and hand coordination.
Paizley participates in periodic sessions at Healing By Horseback, a nonprofit providing facilities and horses for therapists to incorporate hippotherapy techniques into their therapy treatment, said Alyssa Pitts.
Pitts, a speech therapist and owner of Siloam Springs Pediatric Therapy, organizes these sessions at the Cambered Crest barn in the Sugar Hill community southwest of Lincoln.
Half of the barn includes modern horse stalls, Pitts showed. The other half is her family's home, where they moved to devote time and money to the hippotherapy program, she said.
Hippotherapy differs from therapeutic riding because each patient has a plan of care with specific goals, and a licensed therapist leads each session, Pitts said.
Hippotherapy involves a horse's movement to engage sensory and nervous, muscular and cognitive systems to help the patient develop needed skills, according to the website of the American Hippotherapy Association in Fort Collins, Colo.
When the therapy clinic gets a new patient, the patient is evaluated based on developmental norms and the therapist's clinical judgment, Pitts said. Then a plan is created to address the child's deficits and help him get his function back, she said.
The patients work toward the same goals in the clinic setting and in the barn, just using different strategies, she said.
"Based on that plan of care, we come out to the barn and do activities that are directly correlated with the goals from that plan of care, so hippotherapy is just another treatment tool that we use outside of the clinic setting," she said.
Hippotherapy enriches the therapy for Paizley and her spina bifida, as well as patients with cerebral palsy, apraxia, developmental delays, general muscle weakness and more.
Pitts gave the example of a patient with autism.
"He just has to deal with the horse, not with people," she said.
"There's no pressure with a horse. There's no pressure to interact in a certain way. There's no need to impress."
The horse also can trigger many of the body's senses -- the feel of the horse, the smell of a horse, the movement of a horse.
To increase verbal skills, the young riders are taught the horses go when the leader says, "Go."
Then handlers will stop the horse with a reining movement big enough for the rider to recognize. The horse won't start again until the patient gives the order, Pitts said.
When that is mastered, the command might involve more difficulty, such as "Go horse" or "Go more."
Soon the group of providers will work on naming the body parts of a horse, work with verbs and adjectives.
"The activities you can do are endless," Pitts said, showing a store room full of brightly colored items for throwing, hula hoops, basketball goals and more.
Patients can develop fine motor skills by holding a brush and brushing a horse, Pitts added.
"We have clothes for dress-up games with the horse," she said. "Or they can paint the horse with glitter -- that seems to be the kids' favorite. We can do whatever they want, as long as the horse is involved."
The movement of a horse stimulates a body's sense of balance, Pitts said. When a horse moves, the human body automatically reacts to that movement and works to balance the patient's body.
Patients with nervous system or cognitive deficiencies generally might react with reduced alertness, Pitts said.
"In the clinic, the patient might not be aware who is around him," she said. "But on a horse, he might notice the person next to him walking with the horse."
Pitts said she can see a big change in a hippotherapy patient, and quickly.
"Some patients have never felt their hips move before riding a horse," Pitts said with excitement. "After hippotherapy they balance better. Their strides are longer. And they just keep getting better if they continue the therapy."
According to the website of the Professional Association of Therapeutic Animals in Westminster, Colo., "The movement of the horse mimics the human gait by being rhythmic, repeatable and three-dimensional -- all movements needed to simulate normal walking patterns. It so closely resembles our human gait that it helps physically challenged children discover the rhythm needed to initiate their own independent steps."
Therapists put riders on bareback pads to feel true movement of the horse.
Villines said she notices after a session that Paizley uses her hips more and more.
"It helps her move those muscles she doesn't have," she said.
Safety comes first at Healing By Horseback. The horses all have a trial period with Pitts. Pitts said she grew up riding in junior rodeos, but does not lead the therapy to be with the horses. She wants to be with the kids.
The horse must abide someone lying atop of him because some patients can't sit.
Pitts said she has just two of four horses worthy of hippotherapy, but one that would stand all day for paint and glitter.
At least three adults work with a child on a horse, she said.
The horse lead is someone skilled at working with horses, Pitts said. The therapist on one side watches the kid to see the body's responses. A volunteer will walk on the other side of the horse and hold the rider's gait belt to stabilize the rider.
And all riders wear safety helmets, she said.
The horses and other resources for the therapy come from a variety of benefactors.
"God puts people in your life for a reason," Pitts said.
She bought a horse for therapy from a friend of a friend, who is now the program's lead handler.
Another man built a wheelchair lift for the barn. The lift brings the patient up to the level of the horse's back for easier transfer.
"They want to do it, and you can build on their strengths," Pitts said of both helpers and horses. "But you can't train them. They're born with it."
Those with normal senses take for granted many of life's experiences, Pitts reflected.
"I have a heart for kiddos that aren't typical kids," she said. "They got the short end of the stick."
She explained disabled children don't get to play soccer, don't get to play basketball. They only have medical appointments -- and a lot of them.
"But they get to go horse riding when their peers do not," she said.
"I don't make money on it, " Pitts continued.
Villines said her daughter gets excited when she's going to the farm.
"Seeing her grow does warm our hearts," Villines said.
"That's the reason I live in a barn," Pitts said.
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NoneFamily affair
Brothers Seth, Connor and Alec Pitts operate Sugar Hill Ranch southwest of Lincoln.
The original farm had about 350 acres and was started as an apple orchard in 1914 by their great-great-grandfather, Sterling Chambers Pitts. He had three sons and one continued with the farm, the brothers’ great-grandfather Sterling Hardy Pitts. Over the years, the two transitioned the farm from an apple orchard to a Hereford operation and broiler production.
From 1988 to 1990, the farm became their grandfather’s and father’s operation. The two men decided to leave the Hereford business and move into commercial beef production and later built an additional five chicken houses for a total of nine houses.
Today, Sugar Hill Ranch has 1,100 acres. It runs 550 head of mama cows and beef cows, 20 registered Angus bulls, has five chicken houses to raise broiler hens and produces about 2,500 bales of hay each year to feed the livestock in the winter months.
The Pitts family was named the 2019 Washington County Farm Family of the Year. In 2014, the farm was recognized as an Arkansas Century Farm for operating 100 years.
Source: NWA Democrat-Gazette