Hippotherapy concepts: A scoping review to inform transdisciplinary practice guidelines

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Neuroscience
• Animal-Assisted Therapy

Background:

• Hippotherapy, an equine-assisted intervention, employs a horse's movement as a therapeutic tool.
• Occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and speech-language pathologists commonly utilize hippotherapy.
• This study addresses the need for optimized hippotherapy and transdisciplinary practice guidelines for spastic cerebral palsy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore, identify, and describe the core concepts of hippotherapy practices.
• To inform the development of evidence-based hippotherapy guidelines.
• To enhance therapeutic interventions for individuals with spastic cerebral palsy.

Main Methods:

• An exploratory descriptive qualitative research design was employed.
• Arksey and O'Malley's five-stage framework for scoping reviews guided the study.
• Systematic identification and tabulation of hippotherapy concepts were performed.

Main Results:

• Nineteen distinct hippotherapy concepts were identified and tabulated.
• The identified concepts represent the multifaceted nature of hippotherapy interventions.
• This comprehensive list provides a foundation for understanding hippotherapy's components.

Conclusions:

• Hippotherapy is a complex intervention encompassing numerous concepts.
• This scoping review contributes significantly to the development of practice guidelines for hippotherapy in spastic cerebral palsy.
• Integrating these concepts into practice will advance therapeutic outcomes and research.