Rehabilitate with the help of horses will be standard

The corresponding GOST will come into force in autumn

The state standard, which determines how to organize and provide a service for adaptive riding (hippotherapy), was approved by the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Rosstandart). Its adoption should facilitate the work of numerous professionals involved in the rehabilitation of people with disabilities through horseback riding.

As Alexander Denisenkov, president of the National Federation of Hippotherapy and Adaptive Riding, told MK, this method of adaptation has been practiced in Russia for at least three decades. Organizations where you can get treatment with the help of horses are scattered from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. Over time, experts came to the conclusion that it is necessary to determine common approaches to this work. This required the creation of a national standard.

The document, in particular, defines the types of adaptive riding (basic hippotherapy, developing riding and health riding), as well as the requirements for equipping hippotherapy centers. In particular, we are talking about the need for ramps, on which a wheelchair user could climb to get on a horse. Also, the rehabilitation center should have horse boarding ladders – devices with three or four steps wide and strong enough for three people to climb them. Safety helmets and saddles with specially designed stirrups are also required. The size of the riding area should be 20 by 40 meters, the height of the fence should be at least 120 centimeters.

The new document will come into force on October 1 this year. According to Alexander Denisenkov, following this standard, it is planned to develop another one that defines the requirements for horses that participate in rehabilitation. In addition, it is necessary to develop a professional standard for hippotherapists: officially, such a profession does not yet exist.