Effect of therapeutic riding on joint angles parameters of visually impaired children (A long-term study)

We examined the effect of therapeutic riding on the development of blind children. Examination of walking is appropriate for assessing the coordination of movement and for following the changes. In our view we found therapeutic riding should be considered as a new form of habilitation. 34 pupils (19 boys and 15 girls) of an auxiliary school participated in therapeutic riding. We compared children in four groups: deaf, nursery school - aged, school - aged with normal mental skill, and mentally retarded, disabled children. We analyze walking three times a school-term: autumn, winter and spring for three years. (It means two full body analyses each time - before and after therapy: 30 minutes later) 738 analyses were measured. The gait cycle analysis consists of three parts: time-series analysis (displacement function) and part of the gait cycle (stance and swing phase). The third method was measured joint angles in each plane. We found significant differences between before and after the therapy three years later. These parameters changed: Joint angles received more stability in sagital plane and joint angles received more mobility in vertical and horizontal plane. According to our results therapeutic riding may be successfully used as an additional therapy for blind children and it may present a form of habilitation in cases when other means of therapy are not successful.