The Importance of Hippotherapy

All material on the National Hippotherapy Institute website is copyrighted and housed in the Library of Congress.

¨ The National Hippotherapy Institute defines Hippotherapy as the utilization of an equine to promote physical, cognitive, and developmental skills. Hippotherapy, or equine therapy has been in use since 460 B.C. to promote exercise and mental health. Since its early days, Hippotherapy has continually grown in popularity as researchers are beginning to find that therapy with horses is not only beneficial to those with physical ailments, but the horse can also be used to assist in the development of cognition and social aspects of the participant.

¨ The National Hippotherapy Institute endorses all academic study of Hippotherapy and actively endorses any and all true research and efficacy studies in this developing field. 

¨ The National Hippotherapy Institute is actively conducting raw and original research in the fields of educational  psychology, and curriculum and instruction to explore the process of Hippotherapy, document goal development and obtainment of Hippotherapy participants, measure self-efficacy of participants, and establish possible correlations between Hippotherapy participation and academic achievement. This raw and original research is being actively conduced at a nationally accredited institute of higher learning as part of a doctorate program.

¨ The National Hippotherapy Institute does not sell memberships, or offer medical advice. The National Hippotherapy Institute is not a “diploma mill” and has not, nor ever will offer any certification, designation, or title that could be misinterpreted to advocate a level of medical skill or accomplishment.

¨ The research conducted by the National Hippotherapy Institute is new, innovative and foundational. It is the intent for this research to be utilized by interested parties to develop public policy and achieve worthwhile objectives.

¨ It is the fundamental belief of the National Hippotherapy Institute that there is true value in the relationship between a horse and human. The challenge is to document this value, and not arbitrarily limit this value to one field or focus. The ultimate goal of this noble endeavor is to educate the academic, medical, and general population of the inherent worth of Hippotherapy.

¨ The National Hippotherapy Institute endorses the treatment of the whole person:

             *Psychomotor domain

             *Cognitive domain

             *Affective domain

Donate to the Legal Defense of the National Hippotherapy Institute

The National Hippotherapy Institute (NHI) is a not-for-profit organization based in Illinois whose research is national and international in its scope and function.  Recently, NHI has been the victim of harassment  by another organization who offers a Hippotherapy related certification of questionable merit and value.  It is evident from the unprofessional and combative tone of this organization’s unsolicited and harassing phone calls, e-mails, and other correspondence that they intend to bully the NHI into not continuing its research efforts.  Speculation exists that perhaps this other organization fears that NHI may conduct efficacy studies that may detract from the already questionable merit of this other organization’s self-accredited Hippothearpy designation. 

The harassing organization desires to be the sole arbiter of all facets of Hippotherapy, yet limits its focus to one very specialized arena of horse/human interaction. As NHI’s research is new and groundbreaking, NHI can do no other than soldier on in its noble efforts.

The National Hippotherapy Institute is not a money making venture, but rather a vehicle for new and innovative Hippotherapy research.

Any funds donated from the link below will be first utilized for the direct costs of legally defending itself from these malicious attacks.  Any unused funds will be directly donated to support unwanted horses.

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