Effectiveness of Hippotherapy Simulator in Ankylosing Spondylitis

Hippotherapy or therapeutic horseback riding therapy is a form of animal-assisted therapy that uses the horse as a modality that aims to improve postural control, balance, and mobility. With hippotherapy, it is aimed to change the center of gravity by using the movements of the horse and to ensure the adaptation of the trunk and pelvis by developing righting and balance reactions against this new position. Current studies suggest that hippotherapy may be a useful complementary treatment approach for improving balance, fatigue, spasticity, walking, and quality of life in different kinds of disabilities. However, horseback riding therapy itself has some limitations as a treatment due to costs, location, and risks. By its nature horse-riding is too dynamic for patients and requires a large outdoor space. It is believed that a hippotherapy simulator is a therapeutic exercise option for the treatment of thoracolumbar segmental instability and hypo-mobility. Besides complications such as fractures caused by falling are greatly reduced using hippotherapy simulators under proper supervision. Hippotherapy with a mechanical stimulator simulates the motion of a horse as part of a continuous therapy package to provide postural or stability training. This exercise develops unified intuitive stimulation plus motor responses. It engages movement hits that are produced by the machine which mimicking the animal walks: this leads to beneficial consequences.

This prospective clinical study aims to investigate the effect of therapeutic horseback riding therapy via a mechanical simulator on disease-specific outcomes and muscle strength of ankylosing spondylitis patients.

This randomized, single-blind, controlled clinical trial will carry out at the University of Usak/ TURKEY.

This randomized, single-blind, controlled clinical trial will carry out at the University of Usak/ TURKEY. The study will include a total of 60 volunteers who had been diagnosed with AS according to the modified New York criteria. The subjects will be patients who are referred to the outpatient physical therapy center of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department of the Usak University.

Participants will be allocated to the different treatment groups using the block randomization method. All patients in both groups will continue their ongoing medications. But also, both groups will plan to complete exercise sessions 3 times a week for 12 weeks, each lasting 35 minutes per day.