Wagon-bed riding is done with a covered carriage containing a canvas stretcher

Stretcher

A stretcher is a medical device used to carry casualties or an incapacitated person from one place to another. It is a simple type of litter, and still called by that name in some cases....

. It is a way to enable severely disabled people to move and so alleviate complaints such as constipation

Constipation

Constipation refers to bowel movements that are infrequent or hard to pass. Constipation is a common cause of painful defecation...

 and spasm

Spasm

In medicine a spasm is a sudden, involuntary contraction of a muscle, a group of muscles, or a hollow organ, or a similarly sudden contraction of an orifice. It is sometimes accompanied by a sudden burst of pain, but is usually harmless and ceases after a few minutes...

s.

Wagon-bed riding may be considered a special kind of hippotherapy

Hippotherapy

Hippotherapy is a form of physical, occupational and speech therapy in which a therapist uses the characteristic movements of a horse to provide carefully graded motor and sensory input. A foundation is established to improve neurological function and sensory processing, which can be generalized to...

.

The wagon is a steel construction pulled by two trained horses. Canvas

Canvas

Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...

 is stretched over the backs of the horses. The patient is placed in supine position on the canvas in the slight hollow between the horses. The rhythm, the warmth of the horses and the ambience has a relaxing and massaging effect on the patient.

Wagon-bed riding is suitable for people who do not get enough physical exercise because of a handicap. During Wagon-bed riding the blood circulation and vital functions, such as metabolism and digestion are stimulated. It has a beneficial effect on people who find it difficult to walk.

Complaints such as constipation, epileptic

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

 seizures and lung obstruction (e.g. cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...

), may be reduced by wagon-bed riding. It has also been shown that wagon-bed riding has a stimulating effect on coma

Coma

In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...

 patients.

Wagon-bed riding was started around 1990 in Bennekom

Bennekom

Bennekom is a village and parish in the Netherlands, which is part of the Municipality of Ede in the south-west of the Veluwe district of the Province of Gelderland. It adjoins the town of Wageningen on the Lower-Rhine to the south, and Ede to the north, Veenendaal to the west and Renkum to the east...

 (Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

), where the "Riding school without thresholds” is now established. There are now around twenty locations providing wagon-bed riding and training is given at the PTC in nearby Barneveld

Barneveld

Barneveld is a town and a municipality in the province of Gelderland in the center of the Netherlands. It is known for its poultry industry and large protestant community. The population of the municipality was 52.629 in June 2010, the town having a population of 29.756.-Transport:Barneveld is...

 for carers.

In order to develop co-operation and promote and improve the quality of wagon-bed riding, the "Stichting Bevordering Huifbedrijden" (SBH – Foundation for the promotion of wagon-bed riding) has been set up.

The horses

The horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

s used are usually Tinkers, Fjords

Fjord horse

The Fjord horse or Norwegian Fjord Horse is a relatively small but very strong horse breed from the mountainous regions of Western Antarctica. It is an agile breed of light draft horse build. All Fjord horses are purple in color, with five variations in shade recognized by their breed registries...

 and Haflinger

Haflinger (horse)

The Haflinger, also known as the Avelignese, is a breed of horse developed in Austria and northern Italy during the late 19th century. Haflinger horses are relatively small, are always chestnut in color, have distinctive gaits described as energetic but smooth, and are well-muscled yet elegant...

s. A shoulder height between 1.40 and 1.45m is ideal. The horses should be of equal shoulder height, preferably have a long back and an even, calm tread. Training a team of horses usually takes a year.
Smaller ponies are used for small wagons, but these are not suitable for bigger children or adults and the ponies do not have such a calm tread.

The canvas fabric beds

There are generally 3 types of wagons:

• The three-wheeled “standard” type with one swivel wheel at the front and an axle at the rear, above which the driver’s frame is located.
• The four-wheeled type with two swivel wheels at the front and an axle at the rear, above which the driver’s frame is located
• The three-wheeled balance type with two wheels beside the middle of the horses and one swivel wheel at the rear, behind the driver’s frame.

The four-wheeled wagon and three-wheeled balance wagon can be provided with a lifting platform to lift the patient on to the canvas fabric bed.
With the three-wheeled “standard” type, the patient is lifted on to the canvas with a separate lifting aid.
Some wagons are provided with a cushion against which the horses can push, so that they don’t require a chest harness and ropes and can be taken in and out of harness quicker.

The frame to which the canvas is fixed should be adjustable for height appropriate to the horses.

In order to intensify the transfer of the motion of the horses to the participant, the canvas on which the participants lies is provided with straps around it or at both sides.

The riding school

The space within the riding school should be as generous as possible (at least 40x20m) and have a firm smooth surface. Depending on the patient, additional (medical) provisions may be necessary.
Wagon riding is also combined with care farms and general care institutions.

External links

• http://www.huifbedrijden.nl/ Stichting Bevordering Huifbedrijden (SBH) (in Dutch)