I’ve always loved horses. I’ve been riding since I was five, I come from a horse family, says Patricia Labau of Gunnison, CO. Her life revolved around horses. She was competing, showing and jumping… Until one day when her life suddenly changed.

I woke up one morning and couldn’t walk, she says.

She learned some news she never expected.

They diagnosed me with multiple sclerosis, she explains.

Multiple sclerosis is a debilitating disease. But Labau didnt let it keep her from the stables.

Sometimes you can get sick and go, ugh, and I’m not one of those people. I went ok, how can we fix this?

She used a form of riding called dressage as her therapy.

Dressage is to riding as ballet is to dance. Its a classical, very logical systematic approach, says Alice West, announcer and trainer for Grand Valley Dressage Show.

Dressage is a slower form of riding that takes incredible muscle control from the rider.

It also involves very intense training on the part of the rider. The rider has to have a very supple and elastic seat so they don’t interfere with the horses motion and yet still be able to influence the horse, West says.

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Horses as a Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis

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