Therapy with Horses: Mounted Police Unit of Mexico City Helps the Disabled Infosurhoy.com
go to original July 13, 2013

A patient says goodbye to the horse she uses in her equine-assisted therapy session at the Hippotherapy Center of the Mounted Police Unit in the Izlatapa District in Mexico City. The free program has helped the disabled since 1998. (Arturo Ortega/Infosurhoy.com)

MEXICO CITY – For sportswriter Emilio Fernando Alonso, life took a tragic turn when he suffered a stroke that paralyzed his left side in 2005.

“It left me in a very difficult situation,” he said. “I was depressed. I didn’t make any effort to recover. My life went into a period of disillusionment.”

Two years later, Fernando Alonso started his road to recovery.

He enrolled in the horse therapy program – known as hippotherapy – carried out by the Mounted Police Unit of Mexico City Department of Public Safety (SSPDF) at the urging of someone at the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), where he received medical care.

“The accomplishments are visible,” Alonso, 53, said. “When I started, I had no balance and couldn’t even walk. Now, I can move with my own feet and climb stairs. Hippotherapy also helped with my self-esteem.”

The program - which holds 110 therapy sessions lasting 20 minutes apiece a day and serves 639 patients with disabilities - has been provided free of charge by the Mounted Police Unit since 1998.

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