WBSN for the assessment of the hippotherapy

Hippotherapy, also known as equestrian rehabilitation, makes use of the physical interactions between the riding patient and the horse movements, by inducing the patient's trunk to became receptive and responsive to solicitations and consequently improving his postural control and his muscular tone. Evidences of therapy effectiveness have been assessed in gross motor function rehabilitation in children affected by cerebral palsy (CP) and in subjects affected by spinal lesions. However a quantitative and progressing assessment of such results is still lacking because of the intrinsic difficulty of collecting objective data 'on the riding camp'. Typically, the enhancements are evaluated by physicians in the lab, at the end of the rehabilitation cycles, by means of standard postural analysis protocols. This work proposes a multi-parametric method for the objective assessment of the effectiveness of equestrian rehabilitation. In particular a system to evaluate the level of "activity" of the rider with respect to the horse movements is illustrated. The time evolution of this parameter is assumed as an indicator of the enhancement in muscle tone and co-ordination of the patient, hence as an estimate of the therapy efficacy. Preliminary experiments conducted on the riding camp are presented. The results are encouraging, though a full validation of the method will require the involvement of a suitable sample of patients and an evaluation of the reliability and repeatability of the results, based on standard postural analysis protocols.