By Dario Montero
MONTEVIDEO, Jun 19 2006 (IPS)

Quickly and decisively, Matilde, a hyperactive 12-year-old girl with Down syndrome, seems to bond with a horse at the equine therapy ranch run by Uruguayan physiatrist Néstor Nieves.

The interaction with the horse acts as a source of stimulation for Matilde in a number of areas. Guiding her is an expert in psychomotricity, one of the seven children of Nieves and his wife, educator Ana María Reyes. This calming human-equine experience takes place at a rented ranch, just 30 minutes by car from bustling downtown Montevideo.

Therapeutic riding “is based on taking advantage of the horse’s natural qualities to work towards integral rehabilitation of an individual with one or more disabilities, to harmonically integrate health, education and equitation,” states a brochure written by the late Carlos Barboza, a doctor and co-founder with Nieves of the venture through the non-governmental National Association of Equestrian Rehabilitation (ANRE).

“There are very few pathologies that do not benefit from the interaction with horses. The relationship with this animal creates links with a multidisciplinary team, and acts as a stimulator on multiple fronts, in motor and three-dimensional and repetitive movements,” Barboza wrote.

Nieves explained to Tierramérica the progress achieved with equine therapy in people with a broad range of physical, psychological or social disabilities and problems, as he receives his first patients on a Sunday morning, bathed in the southern hemisphere autumn sun.

The horseback ride lasts up to an hour, and includes incursions into a neighbouring farm that grows organic produce. The time spent with the horse also involves other contact, such as brushing the animal and preparing the bridle and saddle.

The girl’s mother and younger brother join in, helping ease moments of tension and participating in Matilde’s obvious progress.

The therapy is multidisciplinary, involving medical doctors, physiatrists, educators, psychologists, occupational therapists and pediatricians.

The patients include amputees and people with muscular dystrophy, brain damage, blindness, deafness, autism, Down syndrome, emotional disturbances, addictions and a long list of other problems.

There are also young people who have been expelled from the school system, and youths left jobless by Uruguay’s severe 2002-2003 economic crisis, says Nieves.

The physiatrist says he is always learning, and he keeps in close contact with the experts leading long-term interdisciplinary therapies in Cuba, and equine therapy efforts in countries like Brazil, France and Spain, as well as exchanges involving Chileans, Peruvians and Mexicans.

The origins of therapeutic riding date back centuries, but 70 years ago it saw a rebirth in northern Europe, while the pioneers in the Americas have been the Brazilians, who have some 200 centres for equine therapy.

Nieves believes that a world congress in Brazil in August will help develop the system with a social focus in the country and the region.

The doctor, paradoxically, first got involved in equine therapy in the midst of a crowded housing complex of some 70,000 people in a low-income Montevideo neighbourhood.

“That environment was not appropriate, and so six years ago we moved to the country,” he explains, adding that the ranch “has magical properties.”

Both he and his wife say that working with horses has changed the whole family’s life. “It opened up for us the world of occupational therapy,” for example, says Nieves.

The final objective of the equine therapy experience is to move from the assistance-based health system, which predominates in Uruguay and throughout most of Latin America, to a more integrated, inclusive and socialising health system.

“What we’re basically talking about is the search for changing this model in order to incorporate rehabilitation,” often sidelined because it implies social reinsertion, which is only possible by providing the person with employment or education opportunities, says Nieves.

Another goal is to disseminate farm schools throughout the country that would cater to people with disabilities, unemployed youths or high school dropouts, through a project presented to the government of socialist President Tabaré Vázquez just after he took office in March 2005, which will soon begin to be implemented.

It would involve making use of some 300 rural schools that have been closed down and another 700 underused facilities to develop educational farms. “It is time to create links between these centres across the country,” says Nieves.

The starting point was the alliance between ANRE and the Cuban Association for Animal Protection, a non-governmental organisation that operates with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Cooperation. The next step is to establish country-to-country agreements, which are already in the works.

(*Darío Montero is the IPS deputy regional editor for Latin America. Originally published June 3 by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)

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