Equine Assisted Therapy By: Ashley M. Lorenc

An ancient Greek sage once said, "The outside of a horse is the best thing for the inside of man." Hippocrates echoed that sentiment when he spoke of "ride rhythm" (Bliss). I have found there is an unspoken magic that horses posses when it comes to healing human beings. This experience is something that could never be taught or reached in a “talk” therapy session. The primary objective of Equine Assisted Therapy at Helping Hands Therapeutic Riding Center is rehabilitation, but it is also there to provide mental, physical, and social stimulation. The children love coming out to ride. It is amazing seeing an unresponsive child get on a horse and 45 minutes later have a totally different personality. Some of the children are more challenging to work with than others. Their attention spans can be short so keeping them focused and entertained can be difficult. One patient we had was a girl about age 12. While on the horse she would talk in song, in a soft tone. She loved being on the horse. When the therapist would tell her left and right she would start to respond and move the reigns. Every child has their own personalities and their own needs. Each child is matched with a horse depending on those needs. This takes great patience for all the participants. Safety is essential. That is why I am there. I volunteer to walk next to the horse, to control the horse, and to monitor the rider through the lesson. The therapist gives the rider commands in which they are to make the horse do. I have to let them be in control however I coax the horse and gently lead it in the right direction. During the day I prepare the horses. I clean their stalls, feed and water them, groom and tack them, and give them a quick warmup before the patients arrive. Horses have existed for over 50 million years, and in many ways have contributed to the unveiling of history. Horses are amazing animals that have provided humans help as physical laborers, defining social statuses, transportation among other things and now with new studies, rehabilitation through therapy. I feel people can connect more easily to animals because they have a silent yet noticeable “calming effect” on humans, they don’t talk back, and they enjoy being touched. Horses are hyper-vigilant animals, meaning they maintain an increased awareness of their surrounding environment, sometimes even frequently scanning the environment to identify potential sources of threat, which requires humans to work to gain their trust. Horses have a way of understanding communications primarily through body language. Assistant clinical director, Nancy Jerrell, formulated a theory that neuroscience and neurochemistry provide insight into how the horse and human connection might work. Mirror neurons are a hard-wired system in the brain that is designed to allow us to perceive the mental state of one another. Horses have the innate ability to mirror back to us whatever feelings or emotions we might be experiencing at that moment. Existing in the right and left hemispheres of the brain, they bridge the perceptual part of the brain with the motor part. When visual, auditory, and sensory input is perceived by another, it is as if they're seeing and feeling what you are feeling. In many cases it was as if the horse could instinctively tune in to the patient’s psyche and knew exactly what they needed and offered it through themselves. This relationship presents a beautiful therapeutic modality that reveals the intelligence, skill, strength, grace and beauty of this therapy. “While scholars and animal lovers have recognized for centuries that riding a horse has its benefits, modern therapeutic horseback riding got its start from Liz Hartel, a polio victim from Denmark who won an Olympic medal for dressage in 1952. The first American center for therapeutic horseback riding was launched about 15 years later, and now there are more than 500 accredited therapeutic riding centers serving more than 25,000 patients in the United States and Canada” (Bliss). The term therapeutic riding was originally used in Germany to address orthopedic dysfunctions such as scoliosis. A physician, a physical therapist and a specially-trained horse and instructor addressed the strength and orthopedic dysfunction for one year. The physical therapist worked with the physician and the patient to attain the patient's goals, and the instructor was responsible for the horse. Later this became known as hippo-therapy in the United States. It would begin to provide mental and physical or manual therapy. Joint mobilization and manipulation including; “chiropractic, osteopathy, physical therapy, massage therapy, and touch therapies, were developed for use in human beings and the techniques advanced into horses. All forms of manual therapy have reported levels of effectiveness for treating musculoskeletal issues in human beings, but mostly only anecdotally evidence exists in horses” (Haussler). Equine-assisted psychotherapy is experiential, using a horse or horses as a medium for emotional growth and healing. “The process integrates left- and right-brain functioning as the left brain engages us in logical, linear, language-based processing looking for cause/effect relationships, and the right brain is in charge of eye contact, facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, postures, intensity, timing and stress response. Both the right brain and left brain duties combine in a dramatic experience in the equine session, as the facilitator remains focused and in the present tense. (Jerrell). “Friendly game” is a training process at Helping Hands where the horse is the motivator. Many long relationships and bonds are formed during these sessions and a distinct communication is established between the horse and rider. The “Natural Horsemanship Method” rather than using force looks into the language of the horse. It doesn’t force the animal, instead it helps it to understand what is wanted and to be willing to do it. Reading body language is a part of herd behavior, so gentle but firm pressure applied in place of fear, pain, and defeat invites the horse into an understanding, trusting, relationship. There is no skill required to begin this process. Whether you have ridden for years or never touched a horse the process slowly unfolds itself and the healing begins. There are two different kinds of therapy sessions at Helping Hands; one on one or group therapy. Group therapy can help reinforce social skills through taking turns and interact like a “team” sport. During group discussions many other important aspects are learned such as; processing information, communicating with humans, understanding feelings, frustrations and the successes of the therapy sessions. The intent is to focus on future goals. The autistic children that ride at Helping Hands often communicate spontaneously for the first time with the horse. The process here teaches grooming, tacking, basic horsemanship and ground work and applying them correctly reinforces sequencing, personal hygiene and other daily living skills such as left/fight differentiation, increased body awareness, fine and gross motor skills. Many of the positive outcomes are the development of new skills, to struggle and overcome obstacles, face new challenges, and control emotions. The therapy works on the “Reward System”. For instance when you command a 1000 pound animal to do something and it follows the command, the rewarded is in the satisfaction of leadership and control. Some other conditions, disorders and addictions Equine Assisted Therapy can help with are chemical dependency, trauma history, depression, eating disorders, sexual abuse, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and many more. Equine Assisted Therapy helps with mental disorders by boosting self esteem. Horses are herd animals and look to lead or to follow. A horse and human are a herd of two and one of them must establish itself as the leader. Veterans diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) drastically improved verbal and nonverbal communications, decreased anxiety, learned how to handle frustration, build confidence, complete tasks, and became more aware of their feelings. PTSD victims tend to isolate themselves, have difficulty connecting with others and trusting others, and have a lack of awareness of body language. With Equine Assisted Therapy they must establish themselves as a leader. Lead therapist Barbara MacLean writes, veterans too are hyper-vigilant so they relate to the horse where others may not. They must learn to become more aware of their own body language and expressing emotion by being assertive without being aggressive all while showing confidence. They learn how to control their impulses if they express violently or make sudden unexpected motions the horse is big enough to cause harm. “I believe that the horse/human alliance and resulting accuracy of identified issues stem from the fact that a horse's brain is made up mostly of the limbic system. This part of the brain dictates emotionality; consequently, horses are emotional creatures. Through horses' innate ability to pick up on emotion and read intent within others, they are able to mirror for a client the feelings and history that need to be addressed” (Jerrell). Equine Assisted Therapy also helps with physical disorders. The rhythmic movements of the horse are thought to improve co-contraction, joint stability, weight shift, posture and equilibrium responses. “Improvements in posture, walking, standing, running and jumping, the ability to recover from perturbations and anticipatory and feedback posture control” (Clayton). Riders use their core stabilizing muscles, including muscles of the abdominal wall and para-spinal muscles, to control movements of the trunk relative to their base of support on the surface of the saddle. People with cerebral palsy may lack control of posture and voluntary movements, making it hard to stabilize the core with the horse's movement. The term cerebral palsy is used to describe a group of permanent disorders of the development of movement and posture that cause activity limitation and that are attributed to non progressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain. Riders with cerebral palsy showed significantly larger range of motion. “Because the three-dimensional movements of the horse's back resembles those of human gait, riding provides people with cerebral palsy with a novel sensorimotor experience that simulates pelvic motion during ambulation” (Clayton). Physical benefits include improved respiration, circulation, balance, and body metabolism, along with greater muscle strength and agility. “The warmth and motion of the horse's body can also reduce spasticity, especially in the adductors of the legs, and enhance coordination in other muscle groups, notably the head, neck, and arms. Likewise mounting, dismounting, saddling, unsaddling, and grooming increase a patient's range of motion” (Bliss). Equine-assisted activities have been shown to improve balance, coordination, and sitting posture off the horse which contributed to the improved ability to control trunk movements. The benefits of modern therapeutic horseback riding include, in the physical realm, improved balance, circulation, respiration, body metabolism and muscle strength and flexibility. Some psychosocial benefits of the riding are improved self-image, self-esteem, and interpersonal skills. This mode of therapy was designed to treat mentally retarded, deaf, autistic, blind, and orthopedic patients, as well as individuals with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina-bifida and muscle dystrophy. Riders should be encouraged to use protective helmets and to allow trained assistants to aid them in performing the advised exercises. Recreational nature of this therapy tends to sidestep the negative attitude patients have towards "talk therapy." Patients want to be involved in the program and they see themselves improving in an environment that allows them to express their thoughts and feelings and develop a sense of trust, autonomy, and initiative. This study of therapy though new, I feel, has proven effective. Animals, horses to be specific, in all there majesty have the power to heal.