Equine-Assisted Therapy

What Is Equine-Assisted Therapy?

“Horse therapy” includes spending time with the horses, tending to them (petting, brushing, grooming), walking them, and herd watching. This has benefits in itself, and we combine it with other, more traditional forms of therapy. Skills such as self-calming and effective communication developed with the support of horses can then be used in daily life and human interactions.

Who Can Benefit? Some Examples:

Group Dynamics (Family Struggles)

A person who has difficulty with group dynamics (i.e., family power struggles, workplace hierarchies) may benefit from guided herd watching  – how are the animals interacting with one another? Who is the leader/lowest on the totem pole? How can you tell from their behaviour and interactions? What does their body language tell you? What kind of communication do they respond to best? Then apply this understanding to humans.

Control, Trauma and Anger

Someone who struggles with control issues, trauma, and anger (e.g. first responders and people with PTSD). First they may learn some self-calming strategies and spend time observing. Horses can hear your heartbeat from 4’ away, so you cannot fake calmness with them. They also respond differently to the different moods they sense in you. Horses also do not learn from pressure, but from the release of pressure. So, the individual has to learn how to control themselves, let go of their desire to control, and work with what the horse requires. When they release control and respond to the horse’s body language, they are rewarded by the interaction.

Couples Communications

A couple that has trouble with communication may be placed on either side of a horse, each holding a lead rope. Their task is to lead the horse through an obstacle course to a given destination that only one of them knows. They receive no instructions, other than to go through all of the obstacles to reach the endpoint. They have to figure out how to communicate to problem-solve because the horse if a horse receives mixed signals, it does not know what to do; it needs them to work together.

Kids Group Therapy

Kids group therapy may include the group talking about “Zones of Regulation” like Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue, as well as what triggers/events may put them in each zone and self-care practices to help them calm themselves. Each child can state something that puts them in the Red zone, and then gets to spray a bit of red colour on a pony with a spray bottle. When the child can share a self-care activity that puts them back in the Blue zone, they are permitted to spray a bit of blue colour on the pony.