The horse has a longstanding historical bond and helping relationship with humanity. Which significantly influenced both cultural and societal development, enabled human progression and improved quality of life in profuse ways. Throughout time, the horse has also been utilised as a ‘healer’ of certain physical and general psychological, emotional, and spiritual ailments. Medical literature from as early as 300 B.C. document physicians of Greece, Italy, Germany, and France reporting psychological and physical therapeutic benefits from horse-human interactions. Furthermore, indigenous populations such as the North American Indians, European Celts and Mongolians of Asia possess strong historical cultural affiliations with the horse and behold them as spiritual guides. Thus, reverence of the horse is widespread around the world, across continents and within many diverse nations.
Although engaging with horses for human wellbeing has been practiced for centuries, ambitions to establish and build empirical research and expand modalities in which horses are used therapeutically have only occurred over the last few decades. Gaining momentum after helping to rehabilitate mass amounts of wounded soldiers after the First World War. Now days diverse populations have successfully engaged in and benefitted from Equine Assisted Therapies, including people with autism (Trzmiel, Purandare, Michalak, Zasadzka, & Pawlaczyk, 2019), schizophrenia (Jormfeldt, & Carlsson, 2018), and eating disorders (DeZutti, 2013). Additionally, people who have experienced abuse and trauma (Phenow, 2016), depression and anxiety (Frederick, Ivey Hatz, & Lanning, 2015), severe emotional disorders (Ewing et al., 2007), internet gaming disorders (Kang, Jung, Park, & Han, 2018), and attachment issues (Balluerka, Muela, Amiano, & Caldentey, 2014) have also evidenced therapeutic gains from Equine Assisted Psychotherapy.
Horses and their natural surroundings can provide an effective and unique learning, healing, or developmental experience. The horse is argued to provide additional therapeutic opportunities compared to other animals due to its size, power, ability to carry humans and inherent behavioural characteristics as a herd and prey animal. Which biologically predisposes horses to have survival instinct behaviours and a highly attuned awareness of environmental and somatic information. The highly perceptive nature of the horse allows it to notice and respond to human emotion and any incongruence in an individual’s behaviour providing instantaneous mirroring feedback.
The horse simulates a social relationship, providing clients an experiential process of building mutual trust and respect, responsibility, empathy, self-esteem, confidence, and mastery. This also provides a relationship where clients can experience their emotion and naturally test, practice, and advance their ability to self-regulate, communicate, set personal boundaries, take calculated risks, problem-solve, and self-actualise. Herd social hierarchy behaviours additionally provide opportunities for growth through the opportunity of human leadership when mutual respect with the horse is established.
Interactions with animals have been shown to incite neurobiological and somatic effects, of reduced arousal, pain, depressed mood, distress, which in-turn increases client coping and vitality. Research by Odendaal (2000) experimentally measured changes in hypertension and neurochemicals associated with affiliative behaviours and found interspecies interactions increase neurochemicals of oxytocin, prolactin, and endorphin, and reduced cortisol levels and blood pressure, which mitigates stress and supports positive affiliative behaviour. Similarly, anxiolytic effects were also found within the animal, revealing mutual and naturally derived benefits of human-animal interactions.
Involving animals within the therapeutic relationship mediates client-therapist tension, perceptions of therapist dominance and can serve as a catalyst for conversation and rapport building, particularly with young people and those who have had traumatic relational experiences. The unspoken, sensory and emotional exchange within a safe, non-judgemental relationship supports clients to explore, externalise, and process difficult internalised emotions. These characteristics of human-animal relationships align with Attachment Theory’s essential requirements which support the formation of secure attachment. Balluerka and colleagues (2014) research found that secure attachment is more prevalent among young people who are exposed to animals. Additionally, Parish-Plass (2008) describes the importance of animals within the therapeutic relationship to circumvent the difficulties of connecting with insecurely attached people, to lower the risk of further cycles of abuse or maladaptive relationships. The human-animal bond can be significant in healing trauma as individuals may trust the safe bond of the animal over the therapist bond. Unlike with the client-therapist relationship, nurturing touch and reciprocal affection can be utilised in the client-horse relationship, where people can re-experience and learn healthy touch, affiliation, communication, boundaries and self-regulation. The trusting bond built between the animal and young person, facilitates the extension of trust to the client-therapist relationship increasing the likelihood of successful therapeutic outcomes.
Furthermore, exposure to natural environments, passively produces a physiologically restorative effect which reduces the mental fatigue associated with stress and trauma, and increases feelings of vitality and happiness. This passive effect of nature influences positive social interactions with others who are enjoying the same space, which can translate into sensations of feeling supported, improved understanding, empathy, confidence, self-efficacy, and positive outcomes.
Rachel Geary
Whole Hearts Counselling, Equine & Adventure Therapy 