Ruthie Racine rides tall in the saddle.
Ordinarily, the 9-year-old Mandeville resident, who has cerebral palsy, uses a walker to get around, and she manages it quite well, thank you very much.
But once a week, she mounts up for a session at the New Heights Therapeutic Riding Center in Folsom. Just one look at her atop retired polo pony Pete is all it takes to see Ruthie is in her happy place.
“She loves it,” said Katherine Racine, Ruthie’s mother. “It gives her a sense of normalcy. She doesn’t get to do a lot of outside activities, so it’s nice just to have something to do out in the fresh air.”
It’s not solely about lifting Ruthie’s spirits, though. Her time with Pete – or Natchez, her steed of choice – also helps her physically, improving her core muscles, her trunk control and, by extension, her confidence, Katherine said.
Now, St. Tammany Health System patients throughout the area will get an opportunity to share in the benefits of hippotherapy, a fancy medical term – derived from the Greek “hippos,” meaning horse – for therapeutic horseback riding.
On June 29, the health system’s Outpatient Therapy Department cut the ribbon on a new clinic at the New Heights’ campus off Louisiana 40 in Folsom. In addition to hippotherapy sessions, conducted by a trained STHS hippotherapist using New Heights’ horses and riding facility, the new Folsom clinic -- expected to be ready for patients by mid-July -- will offer a full suite of traditional physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy offerings.