LINCOLN -- Erica Villines has found hope in a horse.
Hope for a more normal life for her 4-year-old daughter Paizley.
Paizley lives with spina bifida, a neural tube defect that can cause disabilities with movement. Paizley is paralyzed from her knees down. She cannot walk and do other things a normal child can do, and she uses a wheelchair, Villines reported.
But on the back of a horse, Paizley sits straight and uses a pole to move hoops to help her with balance, reaching strength 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, explained Alyssa Pitts.
Pitts, a speech therapist with 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 explained..
Hippotherapy differs from therapeutic riding or adaptive riding because each patient has a plan of care with specific goals and the therapy is directly administered by a licensed therapist, Pitts said.
Hippotheraphy involves a horse's movement to engage sensory, neuromuscular and cognitive systems and promote functional outcomes, explained the website of the American Hippotherapy Association in Fort Collins, Colo.
When the therapy clinic Pitts owns gets a new patient, the patient is evaluated based on standardized assessments and the therapist's clinical judgment, Pitts said. Then a plan of care is created to address the child's deficits and help them get their 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 and generalize 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."
Soon, the rider will have to give the command.
Then handlers will stop the horse with a big reining movement, so the rider notices. 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 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 things for throwing, hula hoops and basketballs and 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 with 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 vestibular alert system, Pitts continued.
When a horse moves, the human body automatically reacts to that movement and works to balance the patient's body.
Patients with neurological or cognitive deficiencies might show with reduced alertness, Pitts explained.
"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 can see it quickly.
"Some patients have never felt their hips move before riding a horse," Pitts said with excitement. "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 Horses for Healing. The horses have 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.
Pitts introduces all the horses to blowing soap bubbles, quick movements, screaming kids, wheelchairs, plastic bags -- any number of items that could distract a horse.
The horse also must abide someone laying 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 explained. 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.
Her horses and other resources 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 so 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 concluded.