Wagon-bed riding is a practice performed with a covered carriage containing a canvas stretcher. It is a way to enable severely disabled people to move and so alleviate complaints such as constipation and spasms.
Wagon-bed riding may be considered a special kind of hippotherapy.
The wagon is a steel construction pulled by two trained horses. Canvas is stretched over the backs of the horses. The patient is placed in supine position on the canvas in the slight hollow between the horses. The rhythm, the warmth of the horses and the ambience has a relaxing and massaging effect on the patient.
Wagon-bed riding is suitable for people who do not get enough physical exercise because of a handicap. During wagon-bed riding the blood circulation and vital functions, such as metabolism and digestion are stimulated. It has a beneficial effect on people who find it difficult to walk.
Complaints such as constipation, epileptic seizures and lung obstruction (e.g. cystic fibrosis), may be reduced by wagon-bed riding. It has also been shown that wagon-bed riding has a stimulating effect on coma patients.
Wagon-bed riding was started in Bennekom (Netherlands), where the "Riding school without thresholds" was established in 1985 upon the initiatives of the Wageningen milkman Johan Roelofsen (1933–2011). [1] As of 2015 there are around twenty locations providing wagon-bed riding, and training for carers is given at the CDB (cursuscentrum Dieropleidingen Barneveld) in nearby Barneveld. [2] As of 2012 there is a new location in Italy. Close to Rome, in Palidoro.
The horses used are usually Tinkers, Fjords and Haflingers. A shoulder height between 1.40 and 1.45m is ideal. The horses should be of equal shoulder height, preferably have a long back and an even, calm tread. Training a team of horses usually takes a year. Smaller ponies are used for small wagons, but these are not suitable for bigger children or adults and the ponies do not have such a calm tread.
There are generally 3 types of wagons:
The four-wheeled wagon and three-wheeled balance wagon can be provided with a lifting platform to lift the patient onto the canvas fabric bed. With the three-wheeled "standard" type, the patient is lifted onto the canvas with a separate lifting aid. Some wagons are provided with a cushion against which the horses can push, so that they don't require a chest harness and ropes and can be taken in and out of harness quicker.
The frame to which the canvas is fixed should be adjustable for height appropriate to the horses.
In order to intensify the transfer of the motion of the horses to the participant, the canvas on which the participants lies is provided with straps around it or at both sides.
The space within the riding school should be as generous as possible (at least 40x20m) and have a firm smooth surface. Depending on the patient, additional (medical) provisions may be necessary. Wagon riding is also combined with care farms and general care institutions.
A bogie is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transport. A bogie may remain normally attached or be quickly detachable. It may include a suspension component within it, or be solid and in turn be suspended ; it may be mounted on a swivel, as traditionally on a railway carriage or locomotive, additionally jointed and sprung, or held in place by other means.
An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle is supported. In the latter case, a bearing or bushing sits inside a central hole in the wheel to allow the wheel or gear to rotate around the axle. Sometimes, especially on bicycles, the latter type of axle is referred to as a spindle.
A cart or dray is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs.
A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping or, on those made in recent centuries, steel springs. Two-wheeled carriages are informal and usually owner-driven.
A stretcher, gurney, litter, or pram is an apparatus used for moving patients who require medical care. A basic type must be carried by two or more people. A wheeled stretcher is often equipped with variable height frames, wheels, tracks, or skids.
Automobile handling and vehicle handling are descriptions of the way a wheeled vehicle responds and reacts to the inputs of a driver, as well as how it moves along a track or road. It is commonly judged by how a vehicle performs particularly during cornering, acceleration, and braking as well as on the vehicle's directional stability when moving in steady state condition. Numerous factors affect handling
A caster is an undriven wheel that is designed to be attached to the bottom of a larger object to enable that object to be moved.
A trailer is an unpowered vehicle towed by a powered vehicle. It is commonly used for the transport of goods and materials.
A dump truck, known also as a dumping truck, dump trailer, dumper trailer, dump lorry or dumper lorry or a dumper for short, is used for transporting materials for construction as well as coal. A typical dump truck is equipped with an open-box bed, which is hinged at the rear and equipped with hydraulic rams to lift the front, allowing the material in the bed to be deposited ("dumped") on the ground behind the truck at the site of delivery. In the UK, Australia, South Africa and India the term applies to off-road construction plants only and the road vehicle is known as a tip lorry, tipper lorry, tipper truck, tip truck, tip trailer or tipper trailer or simply a tipper.
The Dodge Power Wagon is a four-wheel drive medium duty truck that was produced in various model series from 1945 to 1980 by Dodge. The Power Wagon name was revived for the 2005 model year as a four-wheel drive version of the Dodge Ram 2500. As a nameplate, "Power Wagon" continues as a special package of the four-wheel drive version of 3/4 ton Ram Trucks 2500 model.
The Hackney pony is a breed of pony closely related to the Hackney horse. Originally bred to pull carriages, they are used today primarily as show ponies. The breed does not have its own stud book, but shares one with the Hackney horse in all countries that have an official Hackney Stud Book Registry.
A covered wagon, also called a prairie wagon, whitetop, or prairie schooner, is a horse-drawn or ox-drawn wagon with a canvas top used for transportation or hauling. The covered wagon has become a cultural icon of the American West.
A bicycle trailer is a motorless wheeled frame with a hitch system for transporting cargo by bicycle. It can greatly increase a bike's cargo capacity, allowing point-to-point haulage of objects up to 3 cubic metres in volume that weigh as much as 500 kg. However, very heavily loaded trailers may pose a danger to the cyclist and others, and the voluntary European standard EN 15918 therefore suggests a maximum load of 60 kg on trailers without brakes.
A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by automobiles and other forms of self-propelled transport but are still in use today.
Among horse-drawn vehicles, a trolley was a goods vehicle with a platform body with four small wheels of equal size, mounted underneath it, the front two on a turntable undercarriage. The wheels were rather larger and the deck proportionately higher than those of a lorry. A large trolley is likely to have had a headboard with the driver's seat on it, as on a lorry but a smaller trolley may have had a box at the front of the deck or the driver seated on a corner of the deck and his feet on a shaft. With a very small trolley, the 'driver' may even have led the horse as a pedestrian. They were normally drawn by a single pony or horse but a large trolley would have a pair.
An ox-wagon or bullock wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen. It was a traditional form of transport, especially in Southern Africa but also in New Zealand and Australia. Ox-wagons were also used in the United States. The first recorded use of an ox-wagon was around 1670, but they continue to be used in some areas up to modern times.
A Bissell or Bissel truck is a single-axle bogie which pivots towards the centre of a steam locomotive to enable it to negotiate curves more easily. Invented in 1857 by Levi Bissell and usually then known as a pony truck, it is a very simple and common means of designing a carrying wheel.
Roths Industries, Inc. (1945–1960) was a manufacturer of small garden tractors and other agricultural equipment founded by Herbert C. Roths in Alma, Michigan. The company manufactured Garden King Walking Tractors, BesRo Riding Tractors, and Till Ro Stalk Cutters.
Turning radius was a longstanding problem with wagons, dictated by the distance between the front wagon wheels and the bed of the wagon—namely, the point where the rotating wheels collide with the side of the wagon when turning. Many earlier designs required a very large turning radius; however, shrinking the width of the bed means decreasing the size of the load. As this is a problem that carts do not face, this factor, combined with their lighter weight, meant that carts were long preferred over wagons for many uses.
Rio Grande Southern Railroad (RGS), Motor Number 6 is a gasoline engine powered narrow gauge railroad motor car. The Galloping Goose body and chassis were built from a Buick automobile. The new Buick body was cut off behind the front seat and a new rear wall installed. The steering wheel was removed as it was not needed, but the other controls remained. The front axle was removed and replaced with a swiveling two axle lightweight railroad truck with sixteen inch diameter wheels that carried and guided the front of the Goose. Ahead of the front truck is the pilot attached to the frame. Two small pivoted scrapers attached to the rear of the pilot slide on the rails to keep small objects on the track from derailing the lightweight front truck. During the winter season a small snow plow was attached to the front of the pilot. The rear of the car frame was lengthened using steel channel riveted together but welded to the frame to carry the truck type flat-bed platform. The bed has short stake racks around the sides to keep materials from falling off. The Goose was originally powered by the 6-cylinder engine, clutch and transmission that came with the Buick. The drive chain powers the rear swiveling two axle truck assembly mounted under the rear frame and platform bed. The drive shaft turns only the forward axle. The rearmost axle is driven by roller chains and sprockets mounted outside of the wheels on each side. The rear truck has twenty four-inch diameter cast wheels. The braking is accomplished by brake shoes between the axles on each truck being pushed against the wheel treads. These are actuated by linkage connecting them to the normal foot pedal and parking brake lever. The foot brake is connected to the front truck and the parking brake lever is connected to the rear truck. Goose No. 6 received air brakes about 1939. The paint colors of Goose No. 6 early on is still an item of much discussion. Examination of the paint layers on the rear bed revealed only black and then aluminum that was used after 1935.