Hippotherapy Simulator in Children With Cerebral Palsy

The Neurodevelopmental Therapy rehabilitation program was determined according to the children's level of gross motor function, age, gender, mental state, and preferences. Neurodevelopmental Therapy program consists of the rehabilitation of muscle tone disorders, increasing sensory-perception-motor integrity, exercises to increase limb functions and body control, stretching and strengthening exercises for muscle shortness and weakness, exercises that include movements in daily life and training activities such as standing, walking, body care.

Horse Riding Simulator (HRS) device was used as a hippotherapy simulator device. HRS is a device that moves forward, backward, backward-to-back, right-to-left swing and up-and-down swing in 3 dimensions, similar to the movements of a real horse, forming an 8-shaped movement on five axes. After the children sat in the saddle section, they were first taken to the warm-up speed program for 5 minutes, then to another one of the other speed levels (gradually moved to other speed levels as appropriate for the development and tolerance of children) and finally to the warm-up speed program for 5 minutes.