Innovative horse simulator helps riders with disabilities get in the saddle
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/05/2025 (453 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
VICTORIA – “Do you want to go faster?”
Jayne Imeson already knew the answer she was going to get from her six-year-old son, Casey, sitting astride his new steed in a park in Central Saanich, B.C.
He nodded with a smile. “Always faster — this kid loves his speed,” Imeson said.
Casey’s usual ride is a Fjord horse named Valla, but on Thursday, he became the first official user of the MiraColt horse-riding motion simulator developed for the Victoria Therapeutic Riding Association.
The first-of-its-kind device combines a commercially available riding simulator with software designed by CanAssist, an organization that is part of the University of Victoria, dedicated to helping people with disabilities.
The system allows riders to control the speed of their simulated ride through a variety of virtual trails. The university says it’s aimed particularly at those unable to ride a real horse.
Casey has cerebellar ataxia affecting his muscle control but he can ride Valla at the Victoria Therapeutic Riding Association, which has 13 horses of different sizes and kinds.
But Casey’s toothy grin as he rode the MiraColt suggested it was a good substitute.
Users who straddle and sway on the device the size of a large suitcase can pick the scene displayed on a screen — a local park, an urban street or the Arizona desert.
“It replicates the movement of a horse at the gait of a walk,” said Liza Gagel, executive director of the Victoria Therapeutic Riding Association.
“It can go from a very slow walk to a very, very fast walk, and the walk is actually the most beneficial gait for therapeutic purposes, for both physical and mental movement.”
Gagel said the simulator had the promise to help her organization meet growing demand.
“We are limited by the number of hours in a day and horses we have and staff we have,” she said.
“So we are trying to figure out how we are going to meet the needs of our community and then CanAssist showed up at the right time.”
About 230 participants take part in the riding association’s program, with another 50 people waiting, Gagel said.
“We don’t know where we are going to add those people, so we are working with our committees right now to see how many of those people could do the simulator rather than the riding lessons, and then we can have people trade in and trade out,” she said.
Gagel said the simulator would allow riders to warm up their muscles and improve core strength before hopping on a genuine horse.
She added that it would allow others with behavioural challenges to release some of their energy before riding a real horse.
Unlike a real horse, the simulator can also easily move to other locations. “We can actually pick it up and take it to clinics or a physiotherapist office or people’s homes, if that is a need,” Gagel said.
Imeson, Casey’s mother, has seen the benefits of therapeutic riding.
Casey has been riding with the association for two years and the improvements have “truly been incredible,” Imeson said.
“When he is in session here … he’s always improving his abilities and his balance and his motor skills and his reflexes,” she says. “It’s leaps and bounds,” she adds.
Imeson said she believes that the simulator would help her son make additional gains.
“It does an incredible job of replicating the horse movement,” she said.
The simulator is the third project between the riding association and CanAssist during a 15-year collaboration with two local donors, Lynda and Murray Farmer, covering the full cost of the project, which is undisclosed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2025.
