Matteo Santopadre, a former shooting champion who remained in a coma for months after a car accident, attends a hippotherapy session to regain his mobility at San Giovanni Battista Hospital, with his physiotherapist Antonio Spinelli and a horse groom in Rome, Italy, on Feb. 9.In an area of Rome that once hosted horse races, four horses and two ponies move at a much slower pace to help neurological patients restore their movements and confidence.
“It’s a beautiful feeling, to be able to stay in equilibrium, to be able to walk. It’s difficult but with the horse I can do it,” said former shooting champion Matteo Santopadre, who relies on a wheelchair after a months-long coma following a car accident. The hospital’s program, which operates alongside traditional rehabilitation, has been running for a few years. In 2023 it involved more than 600 patients.“With its calm, quiet breathing and slow heartbeats engages the patients, and leads them to relax, let their guard down, let go. It makes everything easier for them, more welcoming,” she said.