Why Horses Make Effective Therapy Animals
Spending time around horses can provide numerous physical and mental health benefits. While many of these benefits are similar to what other animals can offer, there are certain needs that horses are especially suited to meet. Here are a few unique attributes that make horses wonderful therapy animals:
Size
An average horse’s formidable weight compared to that of an average person makes it impossible to control based on human strength alone. People undergoing equine-assisted therapies must learn to earn a horse’s trust and to communicate without using force.
Promises Behavioral Health explains that a horse’s “strength and size can bring up unmet needs, fears, past trauma and feelings of inadequacy or lack of control….Many people feel intimidated and nervous at first. Later, they discover how quickly they process those feelings…. then transfer these lessons to day-to-day life.”
Even miniature horses possess great strength for their size and can offer invaluable mobility and balance assistance to handlers with physical challenges.
Hypervigilance
While a horse’s hypervigilance, or skittish nature, can feel inconvenient in some situations, it’s also a valuable survival skill horses have developed over millions of years as prey animals. This natural adaptation can actually aid veterans suffering from PTSD to understand and process their own hypervigilance in a healthier way.
Mirroring
Horses make effective therapy animals because of their keen sensitivity as herd animals. “They often mirror a client’s behavior or emotions, conveying understanding and connection that allows the client to feel safe” and increases self-awareness. The client is then able to use “the horse’s behavior and interactions for feedback and opportunities to check in and process what is happening in the moment.”
Need for Trust
The Man O’ War Project, a foundation that studies the effects of equine-assisted therapy on veterans, notes that while canine therapy animals are skilled at granting unconditional trust, “relationships with horses must be earned. One must build trust with a horse for it to welcome you into its world.” Once a participant can establish trust with a horse, that will build the participant’s self-trust and their ability to trust others.
Ridability
Horseback riding is not always part of equine-assisted therapy, but therapeutic riding can offer additional benefits. These include “improvements in muscle strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, endurance, sensory registration, visual/spatial orientation, motor control, rhythm/timing, physical arousal, and attentiveness.”
Lifespan
Horses have a longer average lifespan than other popular species used for therapy, and ponies tend to live even longer than horses. Longevity is a major asset for therapy animals since candidates with the ideal temperament and the appropriate training are not always easy to come by.
How to Learn More About Equine-Assisted Therapy
Horses and humans learn from and affect each other in profound ways. Therapeutic riding or equine-assisted mental and emotional therapies are valuable services that can heal and educate participants. If you’d like to find an equine therapy program near you, PATH International provides valuable information about finding qualified providers.
If you’ve benefited from equine therapy and want to share your experience, please consider submitting a story.
Image by AntonioDiaz from Adobe Stock.
