Centralight

Act II: and a course of treatment A horse is a horse, Physical therapy that incorporates the movement of a horse (also known as hippotherapy) may help patients suffering with multiple sclerosis faster than traditional forms of therapy. Deb Silkwood-Sherer, a CMU physical therapy professor, has overseen four research projects since 1999 involving hippotherapy with patients who suffer from both relapsing-remitting and progressive (the more severe) MS. Silkwood-Sherer says people who have MS are a good fit for this therapy because the neurological disease affects so many body parts. Patients are seated on a highly trained horse without a saddle and are led �����rarely do the patients ever take the reins themselves. The therapy is effective because the movement of a horse replicates a real world environment through a horse���s gait, movement through space and the presence of outside stimuli that physical therapists are hard pressed to recreate in a lab. ���When you get someone on a horse, you see their balance improving. They get better at dealing with environmental cues and making reactive adjustments,��� says Silkwood-Sherer. Her studies have shown that MS patients are better at walking on uneven ground, walking up and down stairs, and listening to their body���s cues. And patients with progressive forms of the disease tend to see the biggest gains. Does hippotherapy provide lasting improvement? ���We think so,��� she says. But more studies are required to prove whether these gains will last after patients are no longer undergoing hippotherapy. In the meantime, she has seen some remarkable outcomes firsthand, such as the patient who thought she would never ride horses again following her diagnosis. After being discharged following months of hippotherapy, the woman entered a riding stable once again with SilkwoodSherer. The professor handed over the reins and expected the patient to start off trotting slowly. The next thing she knew, the patient was galloping away with a big grin on her face, shrieking, ���Yee-haw!��� It sounded a bit outrageous: take a motley crew of friends, coworkers and CMU alumni, and bike from Mount Pleasant, S.C., to Mount Pleasant, Mich., to raise money for MS. The nearly 1,200-mile trip, dubbed Challenge MS, was a brainchild of John Hunter���s, owner of several Mount Pleasant bars (Wayside Central, O���Kelly���s and Hunter���s Ale House). In the end, the group of eight cyclists raised nearly $30,000 for regional and national MS groups. Hunter���s grandfather has MS, instilling a personal motivation to get out and make a difference. ���The seven other riders, they just did it out of their hearts, and we paid out of our pockets for the trip. When I woke up in the morning, I told myself, ���I can���t be grumpy when people are taking a week off of work,������ says Hunter. The trek was grueling at times ��� the terrain of the Appalachian Mountains is one Hunter says he���s not eager to repeat anytime soon. ���When it was hard to ride, I just kept thinking, ���I���m blessed to be able to do this ��� some of these people would be grateful to walk, let alone ride hundreds of miles on a bike,��� he says. ��� Act III: Challenge: Accepted Riders were: John Hunter, Pat��Debus, Craig Stage, Lori Rogers, Mark Daisy, Marcus Kullman, Drew Sweaney and Melissa Kane, ���05. centralight spring ���13 23

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