Hippotherapy – life hope for people suffering from infantile cerebral paralysis

The common grieve of having children suffering from infantile cerebral paralysis, one of the most serious illnesses of the spine, made several mothers form an association that they named “Ingeras” (“Little Angel”). The illnesses cannot be fully treated, while the treatment with medications does not produce noticeable results. The mothers that form part of the association convinced themselves that hippotherapy used successfully in such countries as Ukraine, Russia and the United States is efficient indeed. Therefore, they decided to open a hippotherapy center in Chisinau, says the president of the MGO, Vladilena Tardea, who has a four-year-old boy suffering from cerebral paralysis. Alexandr Sarov, student at the State University of Medicine and Pharmacology “N. Testemitanu”, who became the association’s executive director at the request of a family friend who also has a child sick with cerebral paralysis, said that the project has chances of being successful. A specialist from Moscow was invited to come to Chisinau in March, next year. He will give hippotherapy courses during four weeks. Out of the six persons selected to attend the courses, only one has medical education, while the others do horse racing. The association has already signed an agreement with the administration of the Chisinau Zoological Garden, which agreed to offer it three horses of the six needed for the center to work efficiently. The other horses will be brought from abroad. The costs of opening the center are large. About 1 million lei is needed yearly to provide free services to the patients. The association carries out talks with a number of Moldovan banks and economic entities that did not remain indifferent at the parents’ pain. Alexandr Sarov said that talks are also being conducted with a mobile phone company. They want a special telephone number that the kindhearted people could use to send SMSs to donate money. “Not many people will go to the bank to donate 5 or 10 lei and this number would be a solution,” Sarov said. If money is found, the center would be opened at the start of next May. This would be the first center in Moldova that would provide hippotherapy services. Hippotherapy is a unique rehabilitation method. The ride has two kinds of effects on the human body: psychogenic and biomechanical. The small riders overcome their psychological phobias and physical disabilities owing to the strong motivation that appears during communication with the animal.