Support

Horses have a gift. Their company is good for our body and soul. What can we learn from them?

“I got the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis just after I'd started working as a primary school teacher. The first symptoms had occurred as early as 1998 with an inflamed optic nerve, but they went away again. My second flare-up affected my legs from my torso downwards. My family, my partner and my friends gave me the support I needed to accept the disease and to make the best of it.

I don't have to live with the uncertainty that I might experience a new flare-up with new disabilities. I take each day as it comes. I enjoy my life and am successful and beautiful – also in my wheelchair. I have almost perfected the art of dealing with things that can't be planned. I have learnt to be patient and to practise empathy.”

A wide range of goals can be pursued by means of equine-facilitated therapies. These include alleviating pain and regulating muscle tension. Treatment on a horse also has a positive emotional and motivating effect on patients. Equine therapist Denise Knupp and physiotherapist Hagen Schwarze of the Swiss Paraplegic Centre tell us about the effect of an extremely special horse-human relationship. 

A horse has to like humans and be obedient in order to become a reliable therapy horse. Horse trainer Robert Portmann trains Icelandic horses for equine-facilitated therapy and therapeutic riding. He tries to encounter them as a “horse person”.