Equine therapy is unique in its holistic approach where patients receive physical, occupational, and speech therapies all at once. The best part of it is you are having fun and not realizing how hard you’re really working. It changes lives and is an emotional journey–even for the therapists who do this every day.
Nora is a young woman with spina bifida. She’s paralyzed from mid-back down, so her balance is extremely compromised. Despite all that she has had to overcome, she always rises to the occasion. Working with Teddy the horse has changed her life in so many ways, including improving her confidence and giving her enough mobility to learn how to drive.
Beth, the founder of Beyond Boundaries, grew up caring for a rescue horse. So when her first patient as a Physical Therapist was a one-year-old quadriplegic, she put him on her horse to see if it could help him. And that’s when everything started to change.
Beth, the founder of Beyond Boundaries, grew up caring for a rescue horse. So when her first patient as a Physical Therapist was a one-year-old quadriplegic, she put him on her horse to see if it could help him. And that’s when everything started to change.
At Beyond Boundaries, they’re used to doing things a little differently, offering hippotherapy–treatment with the use of horses–to children in need. Their work stands out from other equine-therapy programs across the country by providing a combination of physical, occupational, and speech therapy to patients as needed. The horses assist in providing life skills that translate in children’s day-to-day lives.
President, Beth Stamp, founded the organization after introducing her childhood horse to a one-year-old quadrapalegic patient who had been unresponsive to the more traditional methods of physical therapy. After seeing the incredible and instantaneous gains he made, the rest is history. She and her team of volunteers have been offering this one-of-a-kind therapy ever since.
She says the children in treatment aren’t the only ones benefiting. According to Beth, horses “want to have meaning in their life, too.” She believes her therapy horses understand their mission and get just as much out of living a life of purpose as any person would.