[Motor goals of therapeutic horseback riding for cerebral palsied children (author's transl)].

The article reviews in a critical survey the current opinions on the possibilities of improving the motor functions of cerebral palsied children with the help of riding therapy. Furthermore, the essential motor difficulties with spasm, athetosis and ataxia are described. It is demonstrated that only a small number of these typical difficulties can be tackled by means of riding therapy and that some key problems, particularly encountered by the spastics, cannot be solved. If, despite these facts, the favourable effects of riding on the cerebral palsied cannot be denied, then this must be attributed, first of all, to the unique psychological motivation derived from riding. Credit is given to the effects on the autonomic nervous system, the psyche, the world of experience and the behaviour.