STHS adds equine therapy to its stable of services

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Thursday, June 30, 2022

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STHS adds equine therapy to its stable of services

Mike Scott, mscott@stph.org

A horse grazes beneath the oaks at New Heights Therapeutic Riding Center in Folsom. St. Tammany Health System has partnered with New Heights to offer hippotherapy -- or horseback riding therapy -- to patients at the health system's new Therapy and Wellness Center in Folsom. (Photo by Mike Scott / STHS)

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.

This is not simply a new location. With the addition of hippotherapy, it’s a game-changer.”

- St. Tammany Health System President and CEO Joan Coffman 

“The horses are, of course, what sets this location apart from our other clinics,” said Mike McNeil, director of outpatient rehab services for St. Tammany Health System. “But I’m just as excited that this new location is going to provide full-service, clinic-based rehab therapies – both for adults and for children – even closer to home for people living north of Covington.”

Those more traditional services are conducted in a custom-designed gym outfitted with an array of therapeutic equipment, sparing many patients the drive to STHS’s main rehab facility in Covington.

Located just behind that new clinic, and nestled amid a collection of postcard-ready horse pastures, is the New Heights stables and riding arena, where STHS Physical Therapist Allison Ostendorf conducts hippotherapy sessions.

“What we do is use the horse as a treatment tool, so it’s a traditional physical therapy session but with a portion of it being completed on a horse,” Ostendorf said.

She added that anyone who can benefit from traditional physical therapy – from patients with Down’s syndrome to those with traumatic brain injuries to those with arthritis and many other conditions – may benefit from hippotherapy.

Perhaps no one is as excited about the new facility than St. Tammany  Health System President and CEO Joan Coffman, whose love of horses just might equal Ruthie’s.

“This is not simply a new location. With the addition of hippotherapy, it’s a game-changer,” Coffman said. “From our primary location in front of Flower Estates to our specialty locations in the YMCA; at our Women’s Pavilion; and at St. Tammany Cancer Center, a campus of Ochsner Medical Center, STHS Therapy and Wellness is truly everywhere patients need us.” 

STHS Chief Operating Officer Sharon Toups addresses those gathered for the ribbon-cutting of the health system's new Therapy and Wellness clinic in Folsom, located on the campus of New Heights Therapeutic Riding Center. (Photo by Tory Mansfield / STHS)

STHS physical therapist Allison Ostendorf is interviewed about hippotherapy, which is being offered at the health system's newest Therapy and Wellness Clinic, on the campus of New Heights Therapeutic Riding Center in Folsom. (Photo by Tory Mansfield/STHS)

STHS President and CEO Joan Coffman gets into the spirit of things at the ribbon-cutting for the health system's new Therapy and Wellness clinic in Folsom. (Photo by Tim San Fillippo / STHS)

From left, STHS Chief Operating Officer Sharon Toups, Keith Barre of fl+WB Architects and STHS President and CEO Joan Coffman. (Photo by Mike Scott / STHS)

Dignitaries from St. Tammany Health System and New Heights cut the ribbon on the health system's new Therapy and Wellness Clinic in Folsom, which will offer physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and hippotherapy. (Photo by Tim San Fillippo / STHS)

A peek inside the tack room at New Heights Therapeutic Riding Center in Folsom. (Photo by Tory Mansfield / STHS)

Members of St. Tammany Health System leadership pose with some of the staff of the health system's new Therapy and Wellness clinic in Folsom. (Photo by Tory Mansfield / STHS)

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