Introduction: Equine-assisted therapies are all therapies that use horses and their environment as a therapeutic medium to achieve the set goals. Equine-assisted occupational therapy provides an intervention that is special, fun, inspiring and motivational. Children with cerebral palsy most commonly have problems with motor functioning, mental disorders, epileptic seizures, behavioural and emotional disorders. We made a decision for this theme because we wanted to explore the effectiveness of incorporating equine assisted therapy in occupational therapy for kids with cerebral palsy. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find out the influence of equine-assisted therapies on children with cerebral palsy and in what aspects of children's lives does it improve the quality of their lives. Methods: In the thesis we used the literature review method. For the search we defined the criteria for the inclusion and exclusion of articles. Then we conducted a descriptive and qualitative analysis and established the themes that were repeated the most. Results: In the final analysis we included ten studies that met our criteria for inclusion. Three of those were systematic literature reviews, two were qualitative studies, three were quantitative studies and two studies integrated qualitative and quantitative methods. The articles were published between the years 2007 and 2021. In the thematic analysis we extracted five themes: improved motor function; improved psychosocial function; improved participation in occupations and better performance of the occupation; the importance of equine-assisted therapy for users; and the impact of the environment and the horse. Equine assisted therapies improve their motor, psychosocial, occupational, emotional and behavioural skills. Discussion and conclusion: Equine-assisted therapies positively enhance children’s motivation for participating in the treatment. The users see equine-assisted therapy as a purposeful activity; by participating in it they feel equal to their peers that do not have a motor or mental dysfunction. In the future it would be beneficial to conduct studies about incorporating equine-assisted therapies in occupational therapy interventions that would focus more on improvements in occupational participation and performance.
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