Hippotherapy (Photo courtesy Ross Lavigne)

By Teagan Rasche

Equine Therapy in Medicine Hat

Horses helping kids with speech therapy

Mar 23, 2021 | 4:37 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — One local family is benefitting from using horses to help with speech therapy.

Jenna Weisgerber says her daughter Quinn loves it and has shown great improvement.

“She’s a lot more confident with her talking,” Jenna said. “She speaks much more clear, it’s a really, really great program.”

Weisgerber’s two children – daughter Quinn and son Hayden – struggle with speech issues. For the last two years, she has been taking them to hippotherapy, a form of equine therapy.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Firefighters take win over Police Service in Medicine Hat sledge hockey game

4h ago

IN THE COMMUNITY

'Treblemakers' gives learning musicians courage in Medicine Hat

22h ago

IN THE COMMUNITY

Diverse personal stories shared at 'Pecha Kucha' in Medicine Hat

Jan 17, 2025

When Hayden first started the program, he wasn’t forming words very well, says Jenna. Now he’ll talk to anyone.

“We can go to the grocery store with him and he’s chatting away with the teller,” Jenna said. “He flirted with the barista at Starbucks last week. It’s incredible what the program can do.”

Sandy Redden has 30 years of experience as a speech language pathologist. She decided to start incorporating horses into her treatments five years ago.

She was inspired after reading a magazine article about a similar program in the U.S.

“We use the movement of the horse to stimulate all the systems in the body,” Redden said. “The respiratory system, the vascular system, the language cognitive system, fine motor, growth motor, all of those systems.”

Redden says research is now showing how much the movement of the horse impacts the brain.

Hippotherapy is a complement to the work speech language pathologists do in the office.

“A lot of kids who maybe haven’t been making a lot of progress, we can put them on the horse and we see some of those gains,” said Andrea Baht, a speech language pathologist. “It’s highly motivating for the kids. They love coming and they love working on their goals just because they are on the horse.”

Many parents said they were hesitant at first with their small children with these large animals. But Jenna said her daughter was comfortable right from the start.

“I highly recommend it. Anyone who is wanting to explore other ways to help their child improve their speech, this is probably one of the best things you can do.”

Hippotherapy helps children with sensory input and improving motor abilities, which ultimately impacts speech.

The speech pathologists and parents are amazed by the results they are seeing. Some kids have even said their first words on horseback.