Has anyone ever done it or know someone who had? My doctor is very conservative and wants to be sure I’m safe on my horse. He wasn’t owing to let me ride for months. I suggested therapeutic riding to get my muscles retrained while my horse was at the trainers. He went for it. I have my application in and my doctor is very excited about using therapeutic riding for rehabbing rides. He will even write a prescription to see if insurance will reimburse it. So any information on this?
You might need to do hippotherapy, rather than therapeutic riding, to get reimbursed by insurance. Hippotherapy is conducted by licensed physical therapists who happen to use horses, as compared to therapeutic riding, which is done by specially trained instructors.
We laypeople use the terms interchangeably but that might help you find one that can get reimbursement.
Is he concerned about you falling or his there a particular weakness or motion that has him concerned?
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He’s paranoid about me falling.
You’re much better off to do traditional PT. Save the riding for when the knee is strong and stable.
A therapeutic riding instructor is certified to teach riding in adaptive ways. If you are looking to retrain your muscles as part of the rehabilitative process while using equine movement you should find a PT that uses hippotherapy as part of treatment. The PT would also use a variety of other rehab approaches as well.
Therapeutic riding is to teach people with disabilities and other needs how to ride horses with as needed adapations. Hippotherapy is a treatment approach used by physical, occupational, and speech therapists to address various goals whether part of rehab and/or functional progress towards goals due to a disability. They use the horse’s movement and other treatment approaches to reach goals. If you see a PT, it could be covered by insurance but it is dependent on policy exclusions and if the provider is in-network.
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As long as the incision has healed and you can avoid crashing into anything with your new knee I doubt that you and your doctor need to stress too much. I’ve had two partial knee replacements. The footprint for this procedure is smaller than a total but the trauma and physical recovery are quite similar. Once you are off opiates and are making good progress with range of motion, and aren’t exhausted all the time you should be fine. The prosthesis itself is good and strong as soon as they cement that sucker in. It’s the soft tissues that need to heal.
I was trail riding five weeks after the first knee. Walk, trot, canter in the woods. Big ol trees just waiting to clobber that knee. So i was cautious, didnt try anything too crazy.
Second knee, I was riding by four weeks. Surgeries were in 2013 and 2014. I’ve fallen off several times. Whanged both knees into trees, too. Had a horse roll on me and bust an ankle the day before I was supposed to get the 2nd knee done so it was postponed a couple months (not the same leg as was already replaced, but still a dramatic event that might be expected to cause issues.) The only thing I worried about when the left was done was the amount of torque I’d put on it mounting, even from a block. Wasn’t an issue. I was leery of landing hard on each new knee while dismounting but when you are old and fat and arthritic its pretty much a given that dismounting will involve slithering down the side of the horse while clinging for dear life to tack and mane.
Having a rotator cuff repair a couple years ago and my current orthopedic challenge (fusion of bones in my foot, I’m navicular, ha) both have kept/are keeping me from riding longer than knees did.
What hfa said.
Mounting and dismounting will prob be your main areas of risk. If you have limited mobility and strength, mounting and dismounting are NOT the right times to work on those issues. You need to be able to do these safely and without getting hung up halfway through, or suddenly buckling because your knee gave way. So I reommend a normal PT until you are at the point you can support yourself on one leg and swing the other over.
As a formerly certified TR instructor, there are techniques I could use to support the rider as s/he swings the offside leg over the horse’s back, but they’re pretty limited. In my position on the mounting ramp, there’s only so much I can do to keep a rider from plopping heavily on a horse’s back (without risking my own back).
And since that would be unacceptable for the horse’s health/comfort: If I had a client who lacked knee or hip strength / mobility, I may try these things:
- have the rider mount with leg-over-crest: From a ramp, rider is gently lowered to a seated position in the saddle, facing me (ie, completely sideways in the saddle). Helper(s) on the ground, on the off-side, supporting rider’s back to ensure they cannot flip backwards off the horse. We lean the rider back towards the helpers, and lift the knees so their right ankle can clear the horses crest. Rotate the rider on his/her seat bones clockwise so s/he is facing front, than lean them forward again and voila, they’re sitting astride.
- Or if this is not indicated for their condition, I’d use a motorized sling.
Bottom line, mounting and dismounting are not a strength building exercise. The strength needs to be there through other exercise. But a good TR center .will have all sorts of experience and equipment-- just sharing my own experience.
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