At Atlanta's Chastain Horse Park, 4-legged friends help patients of all ages through therapy

For 25 years, Chastain Horse Park has offered a broad range of therapeutic services that utilize their array of horses.

The nonprofit equestrian center in Atlanta continues to reimagine what therapeutic services look like for kids and adults with disabilities.

"We offer therapeutic riding, we offer hippotherapy, we offer equine psychotherapy services all here at the park, along with equine-assisted learning programming as part of our community engagement projects," said Kate Robbins, Chastain Horse Park's director for therapeutic programming.

The horse park is the only PATH (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship) International Premier Accredited Center in metro Atlanta.

Michelle Winer is a physical therapist and Hippotherapy Clinical Specialist at Chastain Horse Park. She said she's treated patients from the ages of 2 to over 70.

"We see things like genetic disorders, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, post-stroke, multiple sclerosis, anything and everything, autism," Winer said. "Every second that the horse is moving is therapeutic for them. What we're doing is purposefully maneuvering that horse through different movements to facilitate rehabilitation goals in our patients."

CBS News Atlanta was there during a private hippotherapy session with a 5-year-old patient named Charlie. Charlie's mother, Jenny Harris, said she tried sending Charlie to a standard clinical therapy setting, but it didn't seem to work for him. She said a friend mentioned hippotherapy to her, and she has been bringing her son for the last three years.

Harris said hippotherapy is not covered by their insurance, but for her son, it has made the biggest impact on improving his condition.

"Charlie has a rare genetic disease that's called PIP5K1C, and it's called numbers and letters like that because it's so rare," Harris said. "It doesn't actually have a name. When Charlie came here, he couldn't run, he couldn't jump, and his language was lower. Now he's running. He's jumping. He's super chatty, and I really think it's because of being on this horse. It's a relief, knowing that there is something we can do to improve his quality of life and allow him to be part of this world as a normal human being."

Winer said that, depending on a patient's needs, riding sessions will include a multitude of tasks such as standing up out of a sitting position, sitting up, turning around, and cone placement, all while on the horse, to target core stability strength and overall gross motor skills.

The horse park has also started Specialized equine therapy for veterans.

More information can be found here.