Don’t put off meeting the strong and smart until tomorrow

There is an amazing social facility in the city of Tobolsk, Tyumen region. This is the equestrian club “The Little Humpbacked Horse”. It is located in the foothills of the city of Tobolsk near the river station. You may ask, what does horses have to do with it if the object is social? But the fact of the matter is that the main goal of the club organizers is to form a harmonious personality with the help of hippotherapy.

– The uniqueness of hippotherapy lies in the fact that therapeutic horse riding in general has a biomechanical effect on the human body. She strengthens him. The human psyche comes into harmony, because the combination of bodily-oriented and cognitive techniques affects it very favorably, says one of the ideological inspirers of “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” Ekaterina Yuryevna Markshteder. – For example, riding a horse transmits motor impulses to the rider, similar to the movements of a person when walking. The muscles of a horse’s back are made up of many elements. When the animal moves, these elements have a massaging and gentle warming effect on the rider’s leg muscles and pelvic organs. Blood flow in the extremities increases. After all, a horse’s temperature is one and a half degrees higher than that of a person. When a horse walks with the basic gait used in hippotherapy, the animal makes more than a hundred multidirectional oscillatory movements.

And they, in turn, are transmitted to the rider. In order to maintain a correct riding position, the rider must maintain balance. Plus, to coordinate and synchronize your movements. Therefore, horse riding is also very useful for patients with cerebral palsy. After all, muscles that are inactive in everyday life are put to work. Horseback riding also stimulates the development of fine motor skills and perseverance. It improves a person’s harmonious perception of the world around them. With the help of hippotherapy, mental disorders of varying severity can be treated.

And the most important thing is that during the rehabilitation process that very moment of truth occurs! There is a consistent transfer of acquired physical, communication and other skills from the riding situation to everyday life. And in general, if anyone has a dream to get to know horses better – these strong, smart and beautiful animals, then don’t put it off until tomorrow!

Ekaterina gladly shared her joy. She said that last year the administrative and educational building of the club was supplied with gas as part of a social program.

– Yes, the expenses turned out to be quite large – more than two hundred thousand. After all, a special room had to be allocated and equipped for the gas boiler in this building. But when we felt that utility bills had been reduced by at least half, we decided that all investments would pay off one day,” says Ekaterina. – We have many rooms in the building. This includes a large locker room and classrooms where classes are held. We don’t only work with children. Parents also participate in the process. The psychologist conducts thematic meetings, divides the audience into groups according to the degree of difficulty in solving certain problems. We work all year round. Therefore, it was important for us that club members did not experience discomfort in cold weather. So that all rooms are warm. We never skimp on this. For example, when we used to have an electric boiler, in the winter we spent 30 thousand just for heating. But now that we have installed gas, our expenses for these needs amount to 10–15 thousand per month. This is the ceiling. The only thing we thought about was heat loss. After all, the area of ​​our administrative and educational building is essentially small. The total area of ​​all premises is no more than 100 square meters. The building has only two floors, the building dimensions are 11 meters by 7 meters. But to heat it properly, it takes a lot of energy resources. This means that there are most likely heat leaks somewhere. We plan to address this issue in the near future. After all, if you are insulating a building, you need to understand in what places and what materials to use. Warm air usually tends to rise. And if we assume that the heat escapes through the roof, then it will most likely have to be completely rebuilt.

This is a very responsible matter, and good craftsmen will be needed. Here’s a simple example. If a person did not study physics well at school, he may not know that warm air saturated with vapors pulls upward, towards the ceiling. He tends to leave the room and find himself where the humidity and temperature are lower. That is, under the roof of the house. If steam penetrates this place, it will ruin the unprotected insulation.

In winter, the insulation material will suffer even more. The intense cold outside the insulation will block the steam’s path, and the latter will first turn into frost, and then into ice. Frozen water will fill all the pores of the insulation. In spring, the ice will melt and make the insulation unusable. Mineral wool not covered with a vapor barrier film can lose its properties literally in one winter. But you can prevent damage to the insulation if you use vapor-proof material. It will push condensation away from the insulation layer. That is, it is good thermal insulation that keeps warm air in the house. It will not cause rotting of the wood of the roof truss system. This is how in life you have to delve into all the issues in order to avoid unnecessary expenses and prevent mistakes. When the club building was gasified, I also carefully studied all the difficult aspects.

I want the horses to be warm too

Ekaterina Yuryevna believes that for complete happiness it would be nice to “add gas” to the premises where horses live.

– Unfortunately, we do not have gas supplied to the stables themselves. And I would really like the horses to be warm when there is severe frost outside. Our region is so harsh that in winter the temperature drops to very low values,” says Ekaterina. – But in order to gasify premises with animals, additional structures need to be built. This is a very expensive pleasure for us now. This is another expense item and different deadlines for completing the work. For now, we cannot bear such a burden. But we will strive for this. This winter our animals will, unfortunately, be kept in unheated stables. And ideally, the temperature in such rooms should not fall below 5–10 degrees.

Plus, there must be good ventilation. The air should circulate freely and be fresh. Therefore, the gasification project for stables must necessarily take this specificity into account. It is necessary to provide and take into account every little detail. After all, they will form the overall picture of the horses’ comfortable stay in their habitat. In the meantime, we reassure ourselves that our animals are capable of self-regulation. And it’s just great that a horse has an important property – to grow additional hair in winter. This is what saves her in the cold. Plus we put a blanket on her, it also keeps her warm. There is, by the way, the other side of the coin. If the horse sweats, this is also not very good. It will stand wet and dry. In this state, she can get sick even faster. Taking these features into account, we tried to build more spacious premises for animals. For example, our stable has an area of ​​just over 190 square meters. In order to carry gas here, it will be necessary to build an additional room for equipment. Something like a boiler room. I think someday this joyful event will happen.

Photo from the archive of heroes of history

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